Shadows of a Crime
by DoubleDuece
Summary: Mystery killings have been happening in the streets of Yokohama for the past few weeks, so the police enlist the help of the ADA for help or any leads into solving the murder cases. Someone is killing almost every night under the safety of darkness, with the heart of every victim burst in there chests. Who is it? Will they solve the case in time before one of them are targeted?
1. Chapter 1

**NOTES:This story is a from A03, and I have decided to share it on here. This story will have a few OC characters in it, and is a mystery/crime like story. Now this will be my first time posting in a fandom that wasn't Naruto on FF. I hope you enjoy the story. (Oh a side note if this doesn't do well, I may take it back down, this is a trail run for me. After not posting since early 2017 on here, I mainly work on A03, and that's where you can find the rest of my works.**

**Pairings:AtsushixAkutagawa & DazaixChuuya**

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Sirens blare through the streets of Yokohama disturbing the peaceful and joyous atmosphere people have built up in the wonderful and beautiful city they call home. Darkness shrouds the alleyways, and places where the homeless, or street cats only dare to tread upon. There seems to be a predator stalking the people at night, and feeding off the life's energy of its prey. On a newspaper stand not to far from a gruesome crime, one of marvelous actions.

Reads the words of what many have been reading about for the past few weeks, a crime spree that's stumped even the most experienced police officers. Men that have been through many mysteries by finding the culprit, and locking them away for good, but this crime spree was different than the rest of them. Many police cruisers are parked in front of an alleyway, people standing behind yellow tape trying to get a scoop on what is happening.

While many police officers stand near the crowd in hopes of any witnesses, or a story of what exactly happened, pen and pads in hand writing down details of what they were being told. A man walks through the men to look at the body covered by a lone white sheet, his hands behind his back, and his face stone cold it seems. One of the police officers approaches the man of nearly six foot.

"Detective Waters it seems you've finally arrived." The man shakes hands with him as they both look over at the sheet. "The victim is a woman that looks to be in her mid 40's, we don't have a name yet it seems whoever killed her took her wallet. No witnesses to this crime, we're still scouring the crowds as we speak." The man details to the detective from a notepad in his hand.

Detective waters cuts his eyes back to the officer, his mouth set in a thin, but serious line "Who reported this murder?" he asks lowly.

The officer points to a cruiser nearby with a man sitting in the backseat. "A man that was out drinking with his buddies in a bar nearby. He says they stayed out till around 2 in the morning. They decided to split ways, and head on home. One of the men had a vehicle, he offered to take the eyewitness home, but since he lived close to the location of the bar he decided to just walk home. He stumbled upon this crime scene, and immediately called us."

Detective Waters shakes his head as he takes out a cigarette. Lighting it with a flick of his old brass zippo and it inhaling a puff of the toxic fumes. "Have his statement checked out. Meanwhile how did the victim die?" He asks, blowing out a stream of white smoke.

The officer flips through the notes on his pad once more coming up on a page as he reads it out. "There was blood around the victims mouth, meaning something has ruptured from the inside out. There were no physical wounds on the outside of the body, just on the inside." The man looks up to Waters "How is something like that possible? How does someone murder someone like this?"

Waters shakes his head stumped at the mystery of the kill, as he gazes back over to the body. "It shouldn't be possible." He sighs wracking his brain for any answers whatsoever "Is there any security cameras around here, or nearby that could give us some clues?"

"Were having people look into that at the moment, this is the same murder style as the last 23 bodies we've discovered in the last 3 weeks. We could have overlooked murder if this happened once, but the heart's of every victim busted inside of there chests the same way as the last, no way. This city is known for it's ability users. You suspect this is the work of one?" The officer asks as the detective walks forward, and kneeling down to pull the sheet off of the corpses face.

The woman's eye were full of such terror they looked to nearly burst out of her sockets. Skin pale, and cold as she's been dead for hours. The veins around her face standing out like the drying blood on her lips. Her chest looks a bit higher as well as he pulls the sheet a bit lower, the area around her heart swollen. Like a bomb had built up and blew up in right underneath the skin, but not tearing a hole in her largest organ and her ribs looking mangled underneath.

This was strange, this display was just like the last bodies he's looked at for the past few weeks. He hates not finding justice for the victims of unsolved crimes, especially this one. It seems that this kind of job was better off being handed to better hands. He gets up after pulling the sheet back over the body and walking away to pull out his phone to make a phone call.

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**Sorry its so short, but some chapter may be short while some may be longer. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter! I got 6 chapter out altogether on A03, and it'll take some time to get them all up. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary:The case is introduced to the Detective Agency.**

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The sun shines through the streets the next day. People walking amongst themselves chatting away about the events of the past few weeks. Fear in there hearts about who the next victim will be, and when the murderer will strike again. The police have set curfews for the citizens to try to prevent another victim, as they have given the case over to better more skilled hands in the city.

Amongst the streets walks one of the detective agency members. A pile of paperwork in his arms as he walked to work. The boy had grey nearly white hair that's short save for a long strip of hair hanging down one side of his face. He has one purple eye and one gold. Either an ability side effect or a bizarre case of heterochromia. Both shining in the sun like diamonds, yet are so full of life and happiness.

On his lower body he wears black pants, the belt not wound all the way around his waist as he leaves part of the belt waving around in the air freely. A pair of basic if not high grade black leather shoes. On his upper body he adorns a white shirt with a black tie. The files in his arms are files and reports he's been overwhelmed with for the past week or so. Having been taking them back to his apartment to try to finish them early.

He walks up the steps and into the building to the office space he shares with the rest of the members silently. Most of the members are in the office doing their own usual thing. Ranpo reclining back in his chair sucking on a lollipop, bags of sweets scattered around his desk. Yosano, Naomi, and the other secretary in their respective offices doing paperwork. Kunikida typing away as usual, a serious look written all over his face. Glasses gleaming against the lights.

Of course the last but least one that was second laziest in the office, aside from Ranpo. Said man was twirling around in his chair with a smirk holding another book about suicide attempts. The bandages wrapped around his body still present, not like Atsushi expected them to disappear any time soon. With a sigh the tiger boy walks past his mentor to his own desk. Dumping the huge pile of paperwork on his desktop. Sitting down in his chair he opens his laptop, to start more of his ever growing pile of paperwork.

Kunikida clears his throat as he stands from his desk drawing the attention from everyone in the room, papers held in his hands. "Now that everyone is here, we can start the scheduled meeting."

Atsushi raises an eyebrow as he closes his laptop once more "What's the case this time?" he asks the glasses wearer curiously.

The tall man clears his throat as he goes out to handing a single sheet of paper out to everyone as he starts to speak in a professional manner "Last night the president got a call to take on a case that's been stumping the minds of the police for the past few weeks. They are asking for our help to find any clues to solving this particular case."

Dazai looks down at the contents of the paper an unknown look on his face "The heart's of every victim is burst inside their chests like a bomb went off inside them. No physical wounds found on the outside of the body. Most victims are identified through lab tests, because the wallets are either missing as a whole or the identification and money is only taken from the wallets." He points off interested.

Kunikida nods as he continues "The police have found no footprints leading to the bodies, no evidence that can lead them to a suspect. It seems that whoever is taking the contents from the wallets is wearing gloves and has knowledge of forensics because no fingerprints or dna have yet to be found. There are no signs of a struggle either, it's like they died over from a super heart attack or extreme muscle hypertension."

Atsushi raises his hand "Um well how do they know it's a murderer to be exact?"

"Think about this Atsushi. If it was an abnormal event why would so many people fall over from a heart attack? In an alleyway to boot too. If someone was having heart issues they wouldn't go to an alleyway to die, they would try to contact emergency services or fall over dead anywhere." Dazai tells the younger boy as he looks back over the paper, thinking everything through.

Atsushi shakes his head at the revelation as he reads through the paper, its says that there were no security cameras anywhere where the murders happened. The police came to the conclusion that each murder victim wasn't connected to each other in any way, they were picked at random. Most were people that were down on their luck, and were scraping by the last few pennies they had in their pockets or bank accounts. The majority were homeless people that roamed the streets at night.

"Who was the last victim?" He hears Dazai asks.

"Her name was Reserei Skies. She moved here three months ago with her lover, and worked in a small cafe to help pay bills. Both are struggling to pay a months rent. The police talked to her lover, and he told them that she's been working a double shift for the past week to scrape in some money. He's been doing the same, and came home at 1 in the morning last night to find out that she hadn't come home that night. He called the cafe but they told him that they closed at 10 that same night, and proceeded to tell him that one of her co-workers overheard his lover talking about going to a bar to drink." Kunikida explains.

Dazai has a hand to his chin "The woman got off work at 10pm, and headed to a bar. It says that the bartender saw her enter the bar at 10:30pm, and existed the bar at 12:00am. She was heavily intoxicated, but no one acted suspicious around her while inside the bar or leaving. She wasn't seen alive again after 12, and the body was discovered at 2 in the morning. So we have a timeframe of 3 hours to look at." He goes farther down the page for more information "There's no information of how far her apartment was from the bar."

Yosano speaks up "Are they going to send a report of the full autopsy?"

The blond man nods adjusting his glasses over his nose "Yes, that should be here by 4 in the afternoon. Since the clear sign of death was obvious the autopsy isn't going to take very long. I assume you're going to be in your office going over the details, Yosano." He looks over to Dazai and Atsushi "Now since Ranpo, and others are booked for other assignments for the week. Dazai, and Atsushi you two are going to be put on this case for further details." he tells them instantly getting a reaction out of Dazai.

The bandaged man sighs in exaggeration, a bored look on his face. When he averts his eyes away from the glasses wearer does he get yelled at. Eventually Atsushi raises his hand making Kunikida look over at the tiger "What is it? Got a problem with your assignment?"

Atsushi jumps at the stern look sent his way but speaks up anyways "Um no sir, it's just that I have a mission with Akutagawa after lunch. It's to recover some files a low life gang took from the mafia. Should I still go or not?" He asks unsure himself of what the answer would be.

The taller man thinks for a minute before nodding to himself "Since we've got all that we have for the current case until further notice you can go on your mission. Afterwards though you and Dazai are going to scope around the place the last victim was killed at." he says as he turns around to go back to his desk.

With the meeting adjourned everyone goes back to what they were doing previous. With a low sigh Atsushi goes back to doing his reports, starting to type away at the computer. This is not how he planned his day, him and Akutagawa were both planning on taking a walk around the city, and maybe going to a tea shop. Now he would have to cancel those plans in favor of this case, at this point he would have rather went on a mission with Ranpo no matter how annoying the other was.

He takes out his phone to text the other.

_To:Aku_

_From:Atsu_

_[Hey the plans we had after the mission today, we'll have to cancel those. I have a mission with Dazai afterwards.]_

He sends it as he sets it on the table, on vibrate thank god, he wouldn't want get yelled at for being on his phone. He knows Akutagawa might be on a mission right now, he knows enough after working together with him for close to a year now. As he's typing about 10 minutes later his phone buzzes lightly beside his hand. Picking it up he sees its from Akutagawa.

_To:Atsu_

_From:Aku_

_[Ok, I'll assist you on the mission to keep you from getting annoyed over Dazai. We can go afterwards if the mission isn't to long or go back to one of our apartments. I'm currently on a mission right now, so I'll see you after lunch.]_

Atsushi smiles at the response from the other, ever since gaining Dazai's approval after defeating the guild, even defeating the house of the rats Akutagawa has been focusing on more important things than Dazai all the time. He loves spending time with the tiger, and gaining his approval. The same as Atsushi on his end, as after every mission when they had free time they would usually go to a tea shop.

Chuuya would join at times hanging out with the two, of course not to far on the red heads tail was the bandaged man. They would end up hanging out together in a bar, talking things over about whatever came to there minds. Putting his phone down, he smiles continuing to work until the scheduled meeting time.

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**NOTES:This work is a rewrite of another of my works, but I won't bother giving the link, since it's way different from the other one. It may as well be a re-adaption of a sorts of it. But if you do want to read it, just a warning it has 26 chapters, and it's called 'The dark of the past, and light of the future.' This one in particular is going to have, I'm planning 30 chapters. I don't know know it may be less or more chapter as originally planned, but I won't know until I get there. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary:Some pieces** **of the puzzle start to fill in** **with the discovery of t****he earliest victim.**

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The mission with the new double black went by fairly smooth in the span of an hour, as they had recovered the missing files and had managed to not kill any of the other gang members. With the last of the gang members cuffed and brought out of the warehouse, Atsushi turns to his partner, a smile playing across his lips. Akutagawa has a thin trail of blood running down the left side of his cheek from having a surprise punch earlier, though the man that hit him made it out of the scuffle with a broken arm rather than skewered.

It made Atsushi proud that Akutagawa wasn't killing people anymore, and that the man had calmed down from his deep obsession of Dazai for months now. No longer did the dark haired man desire to make his old mentor proud, but he had a different goal to impress Atsushi by not killing anyone. The way the grey-haired boy's long strand of hair softly waved in the wind, to the way the loose part of his belt swished behind him like a tiger walking along the jungles. Everything about Atsushi made his heart pound, and his stomach flutter with what seemed like a thousand butterflies.

Akutagawa loved spending every waking minute with the other, though he didn't know if Atsushi held the same feelings for him. For now, he would stay silent about what he felt as he gazed up to the other, only for the younger boy to look away with a slight blush on his face. These feelings started coming up after the third month of working together, and that's when his obsession for Dazai slowly fizzled out like a dying flame.

Atsushi looks away from the other after meeting his dark eyes. 'Why am I feeling like this?' The boy wonders as he straightens back out the best he could manage and takes a deep breath to turn back to the other. Rubbing the back of his neck he speaks "So um I guess we should get going to Dazai-sans location."

Akutagawa straightens out his face as he nods, stuffing his hands into his coat pockets. They both start to walk to the entrance of the warehouse, the only sound between them they're light breathing and clacking footsteps. Atsushi had debriefed the taller man earlier on the way to their mission point about what Dazai was supposed to be investigating. Atsushi looks over to the docks they had just passed after exiting the warehouse pretty quickly.

"So what do you think about the case me and Dazai-san are working on?" The grey-haired boy asks the other, curious of what the others answer would be.

Akutagawa sighs for a low minute, mulling the words around in his head. He looks up at the darkened evening sky, the lights of the city glimmering in the background and The sounds of eerie boat horns blowing gives a chill to the light breeze. Yokohama was the most beautiful this time of day, more glamorous at dark. "It doesn't sound like a normal person is killing any of these people." Atsushi hears as he snaps his head back over to gaze at Aku.

"If the hearts were all burst inside the chest with that much force, with no exit wounds or bomband chemical residue. Then surely it must be an ability user. Although I've never heard of such an ability, and anyone that has an ability like that in this city can be considered dangerous." The taller man goes to say, a hand on his chin in thought. "Considering also we have no idea who it is, or what they look like. Especially how their ability works."

"Do you think they were committing those crimes alone, or do they have help?" Atsushi asks the other lowly as to not draw any attention to themselves. He looks down, a grim look painted across his face "It's scary to think that someone like that is walking the very streets that civilians do, including us. We don't know who they are or what they might look like." he rambles out, squeezing his hands together nervously.

A sigh breaks from Aku's mouth as he reaches over and pats the others head lightly "Calm down, I'm sure we can handle ourselves. We have so far, with Rashoumon and your ability, we can take them down." Those words were a bit more reassuring to Atsushi as he tries to calm down. Just as he's about to say something else a hand drops on his shoulder spooking him.

A screech escapes past his lips and hops away from the hand fixing to activate his ability when he stops in light shock. Blinking stupidly he thinks 'Huh? I can't activate my ability.' A revelation then goes through his head as his shoulders drop 'I know only one person capable of doing so..' With his mouth set, he sneaks a look back to his mentor that's smirking like an evil scientist.

Akutagawa is just giving the other a dull look like a light but a rough cough escapes past his throat "I assume you're here to pick up, Jinko?"

Dazai smiles with a nod of his head. "You bet. We need to get through this mission quick. I just recently acquired a new suicide book that I want to try out!" The coo that comes from the bandaged man is like nails on a chalkboard.

The grey-haired boy sighs, rubbing some strands of hair out of his face "Let's just get this over with." He proceeds to walk forward, eager to go to a tea shop as soon as possible. "That woman that was killed last night. Where are we supposed to go?" He asks only for Dazai to grab his wrist and pull him back. When Atsushi looks back to his mentor, instead of finding a mischievous look he finds a grim one.

Akutagawa notices the change of the atmosphere, raising his brow up in question "What is it? You just went quiet."

Dazai slumps as he gently says "Another victim was found an hour ago."

Like a lightning strike, Atsushi and Aku give each other crossed looks as they look back over to Dazai. "Attacking in broad daylight, now?" The younger boy asks horrified at the prospect. He gives his mentor an equally grim look "Who was the victim this time?"

"The victim was a 26-year-old female from a rich family located in Germany. Something must have spooked the attacker because they took the wallet with the ID and money, but didn't notice that the girl had another ID, one that was expired. The cops looked into her, and have informed the family. They said that she had just arrived in Yokohama this morning for vacation." He looks up from the notes he had taken previously. "The best part of all of this…" He draws out as he takes out a tape with a slight smirk.

"A videotape, but how?" Atsushi asks bewildered.

The smirk on the older man's face widens "The woman ran into an alleyway that just so happened to be controlled by a business, that just so happened to have security camera's in that area." He giggles as his eyes sparkled with a glint "They messed up this time."

Atsushi smiles happily "Does that mean me and Aku can go to the teashops? We'll have this case wrapped up in no time with that tape!"

"Hopefully, this case is eating up my time," Dazai says as he shoots a hand out and wrangles Atsushi against his chest with a surprised squeak. "But no, we have to watch this tape, and find out who the killer is back in the office." As such the annoyance by the name of Dazai starts to drag the unwilling Atsushi back to the ADA office.

* * *

An hour later sitting in the darkened office, sits the three bored men watching the hours of clips the security camera held. Clip after clip of dull footage, the hope for a break, in this case, seemed less and less hopeful. Thumping his head against the desk, Atsushi rubs his tired eyes and stands up with his stomach growling. Dazai shares a rare sympathetic look to the tiger, as he runs a hand through his hair as he pauses the footage.

"Why don't you and Akutagawa go to get something to eat at the teashops." He glances back at the open laptop a small pout in his lips "It seems like there's nothing going on, and a high chance nothing will happen. This was a possible lead, a lead that hasn't been checked out yet."

Atsushi bows, thankful to his mentor "Thank you so much Dazai-san!" Standing back up he shares a look to Aku "Let's go Akutagawa."

Dazai watches the two young men disappear behind the door, as he's left alone in the darkening office. Unpausing the footage he continues to watch for another half hour until something interesting comes across the screen. A woman that had been killed earlier today runs crazily past the alleyway, obviously looking for a place to hide. The shop was closed for the day and thus couldn't provided safety for the woman. She looked around, eventually running into the alleyway where she was found.

Going out of screenshot, nothing happens for about 5 minutes, in the corner of the screen small flares of red appear as though a gun had gone off. It had matched up with the woman as she was found with a gun. So she was shooting at something or someone in that alleyway. Three more shots are fired before everything went still once again. An hour passes afterward and no one has yet to emerge from the alleyway.

'What had spooked the attackers though?' He mentally questions as he rewinds the tape, and finally sees a police cruiser drive by for a few seconds before going out of sight, it was barely in the sights of the camera. He keeps rewinding, going through the footage, trying to figure this whole thing out but nothing was showing of any attacker. Right as he's about to throw in the towel, he sees a small puddle of water in the sights of the camera.

Leaning forward with his brow scrunched together, his focus completely on the puddle. He stops the tape after the gunshots go off, skipping a few minutes after the police cruiser goes by. He notices that the water rippled. 'Wait, what? What was that?' He thinks as he continues to replay that part 'That ripple didn't look like a raindrop; it wasn't raining today. The sky was clear, so why?' Something then clicks in his mind as he thinks out loud "Oh my god…"


	4. Chapter 4

Chuuya was called in by Dazai half an hour ago as he was going out to get some coffee, seeing as it was late and he had some files he needed to work on back at home in his apartment. Dazai was currently back at the agency doing some work of his own. It was hard for him to believe it at first. That's why he was on his way to the agency right now to witness if the man was truly working or not. If he wasn't and was just goofing off. 'Well his head would make a good volleyball wouldn't it?' Thought the bandaged man with a dark smile.

With a sigh he walks into the empty office as everyone else has gone home or currently away for a longer than normal mission. He spots Dazai as a scowl comes across his face. "What do you want you bandage wearing bastard?" He asks the other.

Dazai looks up from the computer screen and for once looks a bit serious as he motions the other over. No small tidbits like he usually did, the redhead begrudgingly walks over to peer at the screen. He sees an alleyway beside a small shop he's seen once or twice. The video is paused as he sits down in the empty seat on the right side of Dazai, occasionally sipping at his steaming coffee.

"What's with the video?" Chuuya asks lowly not really in the mood to squabble like they normally do.

Dazai hands him a news article he's familiar with as he looks back up at the other clearing having read the latest murder. "We were assigned to work on solving the murders, luckily we got security footage this time, but….." He trails off as he glances back at the screen.

The redhead raises an eyebrow at the dying sentence. "But what? What kind of hunch have you came up with this time for it?"

Dazai turns the monitor to him "Watch this time and that puddle there in this frame." Dazai says pointing at the times shown in the video and the puddle in the black and white video. Chuuya watches through as the woman runs into the alleyway, her shooting, the police car going by, and then finally to that puddle. A single dip in the water, not like dripping water, but more like someone stepping into the puddle. The video didn't show anyone come out of the alleyway though, so that could only be one thing.

"It's the work of an ability user." Chuuya says coming to a conclusion.

"That's what my conclusion is as well when I played the tape over and over reviewing that small scene. Though it may be more than one ability user, or it could be just one. This ability user has the power of hiding their presence. No one came out of that alleyway is what I first thought, but after reviewing this scene I now know that small fact." Dazai says with his hand on his chin as he looks at the tape. "I'm going to have Ango look through the database for anyone with such an ability. Once we get a list of people we can narrow it down from there."

"What if this certain ability user isn't in the database?" Chuuya asks him back leaning back in his seat. "If that camera had a heat detector on it we could be sure that it is an ability user." He says laying his coffee on the table. "Just think what the police are going to say when you present your findings back to them. They would need more evidence than one small puddle out of all the footage."

Dazai then cracks a small smile making Chuuya a bit nervous "That's why we'll do a small investigation of our own while they do theirs."

Chuuya raises an eyebrow "How exactly are you planning to do that?"

Dazai still has that smile on his face like he's planning something sketchy, which is 90% percent of the time for a man like him. He always has something up his sleeve, or always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else. That's how it's always been since he met the waste of bandages at the ripe age of 15 years old. "Well I need to formulate it and string it together out a bit more. Yet I got a solid idea of what we can do." He says with a hand on his chin in thought.

'Wait, wait, wait! He said we!' Chuuya thinks real quick as he scowls at the bandaged man. "Hey asshole I don't work for the ADA, so don't drag me into it." The redhead is quick to stand up to leave, knowing he's got better things to do than work on a case that was assigned to the detective agency. "The detective agency was assigned this case, not the Port Mafia!"

"Oh well!" There comes the dramatization from the shitty bastard. "I guess we'll have to break the truce that we have with the Port Mafia." Dazai is quick to say as a wide smirk comes over his face, eyes shining with glee. He sees Chuuya stiffen from where he stands as he continues "That means we'll be at each other's throats again, and you won't be able to taste the bottle of the 1947 Chateau Chevel Blanc wine I've been saving somewhere in my apartment." The man has the gall to start spinning in his chair blowing out some air in exaggeration. "Boo, and I was saving it for something good… Maybe I'll just go home tonight and smash it against the balcony or give it to someone else."

Chuuya's brain nearly short circuits at the words spewed from the others mouth. How dare he do harm like that to an innocent bottle of wine that is that expensive! He could call himself a wine connoisseur with his taste in high quality and expensive wines around the world. He knew that, that brand of wine was one of the most expensive wines that could be found. Dazai knew just how to get under his skin and make the heat boil over the pot so much it boiled dry and caught fire on the stove it sat on.

Like a flash of lightning he's standing over Dazai seething with rage as he glares the man down "You best not be fucking with me!"

Dazai holds his hands up like he's the most innocent person thats ever walked the earth. "Now, now have I ever fucked you over?"

'Yes you have, a dozen times in the past for a matter of fact! From putting a bomb under my car, to feeding me so many lies! Not to mention letting me go overboard with corruption one to many time in the past… or that hooker from Cancun...' Chuuya thinks hastily, but doesn't voice his thoughts. He gets closer to Dazai, his breath nearly tickling the other man's face as he says dangerously "If I find out your lying about that wine, you'll become pulverized so bad the clean up crew won't be able to piece your identity back together!"

"Oh your resorting to threats now shortstack." The bandaged man coos out like Chuuya's threat was mere childsplay. Pissing the other off.

Gritting his teeth the redhead scoffs asking once again "Now listen here you waste of space, I'm still a growing man. I'm 22 years old!"

"You've been saying that since you were fifteen years old, and yet you've hardly grown." Dazai resorts smartly.

There bickering is interrupted by the sound of a door coming open and a voice saying "Um are we interrupting something?"

The two grown men stop there bickering to look at the office door, only to see Atsushi and Akutagawa have come back with something from the teashop down the street. White bags with spots of grease dotted around on the sides and bottom of the bag held in their hands, as the two gaze at the two bickering grown men in front of them.

Dazai pushes Chuuya away from his being as he beams at the tiger "Atsushi! Did you bring me something to eat?"

Atsushi sighs as they start walking to the desk they previously sat at "Your lucky I thought of you, or you would have to watch me eat right in front of you." He says laying down the paper bag he's holding on the desk as he pulls out a wrapped hot sandwich, and hands it to the man. He then proceeds to pull out a styrofoam container with some plastic black spoons.

"Let me guess. Chazuke?" Dazai asks the tiger with a near sweatdrop.

"Hey leave the kid alone, he can eat what he wants. How he puts up with someone like you as a mentor I will never know." Chuuya exclaims as he takes his seat from before, and props his feet up on the desk not to far from the computer screen.

"I told Atsushi not to buy you anything but he insisted." Akutagawa says a bit harshly as he takes out his own hot soup from the paper bag he was carrying. He reaches back into the bag to pull out another container as he hands it off to the redhead. Looking back over to the laptop, he sees that the video is paused. "So you find out anything or is it just another dead end?"

"Oh we found something alright, though in police investigation standards they would consider it inconclusive evidence. I've come up with a plan that the four of us are going to do our own digging and investigation into the matter." Dazai says, sandwich in one hand, while he waves his other hand around in a circle. With everyone sitting down he shows the new double black team what he and Chuuya have concluded and came up with, video wise.

After in through detail the tigers eyes go wide as he looks between the screen and Dazai "So your telling us it's an ability user?"

"Exactly. Though we don't have any information as to who it is yet, or if they're even in the database. Ango is checking that out for me. I should have an answer to that by tomorrow, after all there are a lot of ability users in the database. At the same time there are a lot of unregistered ability users in this world as well." The bandaged man says while he takes a bite of his sandwich.

"Why don't they register themselves into the system?" Atsushi asks in great curiosity. Halfway done with his Chazuke already, "What would they have to lose by getting registered?"

"They have a lot to lose depending on their record. Many despise the governments and the Powerball/bully system. They don't want anything to do with it and that includes to be known to the government. Most are in small gangs, or cliches as they like to call it. Earning a fake name for themselves, including code names." Chuuya says pushing his food around in the container, knowing exactly what he's talking about. Having been part of the Sheep years ago before officially joining the Port Mafia.

"So there is just one ability user or more than one?" Atsushi asks once again curiosity getting the best of him.

"That we don't know. One footstep was seen in the puddle minutes after the last of the shots dispersed. No more after that, it could be only one, or it could be multiple people behind the crimes. We don't know the full extent or how this person's ability works. So anything could be a sure hit or a long shot out there." The bandaged man says as his phone rings then and he puts the phone to his ear.

"Hello this is Dazai speaking, who is this?" He shakes his head for a pause before recognition comes across his face. "Oh detective! What is it?" The bandaged man listens for the next few minutes what the detective has to say, as he nods his head here and there. He then looks over to the laptop. "We have one thing in the security footage that I need you to come see tomorrow, it may be the start of a breaker in the case." He nods his head once again as his eyes go wide, and smile breaks out on his lips. "Yes sir we'll wait for the results when they come out, we'll set up a meeting tomorrow. Ok bye chat tomorrow." Dazai says as he hangs up the phone and puts it back into his pocket.

Everyone leans forward in anticipation. Dazai crosses his arms as he answers smugly "We've hit a jackpot. They found a single strand of hair in the alleyway."

Everyone is floored, DNA evidence was gold to a case. They were only getting closer to finding and piecing the puzzle back together.


	5. Chapter 5

The night passed by relatively quickly as everyone went to there respective homes to rest for the night eager for the results of tomorrows hair strand test. The detective had told Dazai over the phone that during the cleanup of the latest body while moving her to the morgue, one of the police officers had found a long strand of dark hair clinging to the womens clothes. The dead woman is question had short bleach blonde hair that couldn't have been hers, so the discovery of the hair strand was a hopefully promising lead.

Once morning came, and the group of four were walking to the police station with the surveillance camera footage. The detective sent Dazai a message that they got a hit and to come early in the morning for the results. Yawning Dazai props himself in the seat across from Detective Walters, the other three sitting around the long meeting table, a projector ready for use.

Detective Walters crosses his hands under his chin as he has a folder and a small remote on the table surface below him. He gives a low sigh "It's good you could make it. I had my men working all throughout the night running the hair through the database looking for a match, and finally around sunrise we found one." He says as he picks up the small remote and turns it towards the white screen on the head of the table. On the screen comes a girl with dark brownish red colored hair that reached a bit past her shoulders. Her hair was wavy, skin looked like the sun had kissed her lightly, and honey gold eyes. She looked like she was fairly young and was wearing an orphanage stationed outfit.

"Her name is Beatrix Von Lothringen. Born in Austria, and raised in an orphanage since she was a baby. Her parents are unknown, but at the age of 4 years old she was adopted by the Peterson couple. Then a year later when she was 5, the neighbors came back from a months vacation to find out the Peterson couple dead in there house. They were half decomposed, but Beatrix was nowhere to be found throughout the house. The safe in the couples room was open and cleaned out, whereas in the girls room a lot of clothes from the dresser in the room was emptied out." Walter's explains as he looks back over to Dazai.

Dazai meets the detectives eyes "What of an ability? How long were the bodies discovered to be in the house before discovery?"

"It was estimated that they were dead a couple of weeks before being discovered. There was no signs of a struggle throughout the house either." Walters replies grimly a thin frown on his lips.

"How were they killed?" Dazai questions once more, eyes completely focused for once.

Walters clears his throat as he opens the folder to the very old autopsy reports of the couple. Stopping on the man first he speaks "Davis Peterson, he was like our victims of the cases were currently investigating. His heart was burst inside his chest, but there was a knife with his DNA on the handle close to his body. The Austrian police determined that he must have been fixing to attack someone, but without any living eyewitnesses, or security cameras they couldn't really make a firm determination." He flips the page to another report of a woman "Lia Peterson, she was found with a single shot gun wound to the head. It was determined with such a point blank range, and the fact that her fingerprints were found on the pistol, that she had shot herself in the head."

Dazai hms as he nods his head and looks back up to the man a small smile on his face. "Well thanks to that information, I think we've figured out who's behind the murder part of every crime." He looks back to the picture still on the wall "She is the only one that could have killed the man with an ability to manipulate the heart. Though we can't be a hundred percent sure until I forward this information to Ango. He's supposed to be forwarding me a list of ability users that have a camo ability, or close to it." Dazai reaches for the laptop with the tape as he opens it and shows it to the detective as he goes on to explain everything that they concluded and came up with last night for it.

"So more than likely there is more than one suspect in this crime spree." Walters says as he looks up from the footage. "For me this is enough evidence, but for more of the higher ups you know how difficult it is to convince them that this tiny sliver of footage is anything conclusive."

"I do." The bandaged man says as he sighs under his breath. "Most would try to find some loop around an explanation around as to why the puddle was disturbed. Whether it be rain, someone threw something, something fell, excetera, excetera." Dazai says as he looks down to the table. "Not to mention some of the higher ups aren't big fans of ability users either. So it'll be hard convincing them, but every case where a ability user is involved in a crime spree like this, no matter what they want their head."

Atsushi speaks up from behind sheepishly "Um sir. What will happen to this girl and whoever else is involved in this case?"

"In a minor case of theft, or robbery they'll be have some time in, maybe up to a year or more of prison with ability restraints, with up to three years of probation. In a case such as this, with several accounts of murder. If they don't plead guilty, they'll be held for a trial date in the court of law. If proven guilty which in this case, there is several pieces of evidence against them, and they'll be sentenced as guilty by the jury. If they take the deals offered to them they could avoid the death sentence, and be sent to the highest secured facility for ability users. They'll be put under 24/7, 365 days a year surveillance. Ability cancelers on their bodies constantly depending on their ability, and never see the light of day, or taste the air of freedom for the rest of their days." Walters states professionally, as a knock on the door outside is heard, the man turns his head towards the door "Yes what is it?"

A police officer peaks his head out from the hallway "Sir someone that works for a man named Ango dropped this list off for someone that goes by the name of Dazai. He said that he found out about this meeting, and that it would save him the trouble of faxing the information." The officer says as he puts a yellow closed envelope on the table as he looks at Walters for further orders.

The detective nods "Ok." He cuts his eyes back to the young officer "You may go. I can handle it from here, the meeting is still in session."

"Yes sir." The officer says as he bows and proceeds to close to door behind him.

Walter motions to Dazai to get the folder, and the bandaged man takes the envelope not wasting any time as he tears into it, to drag out a short list of names. He puts the rest of the contents down on the table as he looks through the list which consists of a total of 5 names. Stapled on the front is a small letter that reads.

**-Dazai**

**I had my men go through the database last night and look through the list of names for what you had requested yesterday. I came up with a list of the 5 in the list, we went even further and searched all their information, location etc. It details if they are deceased or still alive. The other packet in the envelope details where they've been, where they currently live, etc. If you have any questions come into contact with me or any of my men.**

**-Ango**

'Ok let's see what we've got.' Dazai thinks as he looks through the names. Down below lists:

**Scarlett Gerson**

**Freya Bacarri**

**Elijah Backstrom**

**Carter Williamson**

**Cyra Babins**

Dazai raises an eyebrow as he puts the list down and proceeds to pull out the profiles of each user. The first one he sees is Scarlett Gerson. "Scarlett Gerson." He calls out as he reads out her information to everyone. "Thirteen years old, she lives in Ontario, Canada. She was contacted yesterday asking of her whereabouts for the last 3 weeks. She said that she was attending a camp with her classmates for the past month, and that they still have another month to go until she was finished with it. Her alibi ended up checking out as the camp was contacted with the information she had gave them. Her ability allows her to blend in with her surroundings, but only if she's standing still." The bandaged man finishes as he sets the profile aside. He looks back up to the detective waiting for his verdict.

"Well according to the footage, by the way the puddle was disturbed, it appeared that whoever it was, was walking. If this girls alibi didn't even check out, it couldn't have been her. This person in the video had a camo ability that allows them to be undetectable even when walking, or running. This Scarlett would have been seen if she would have started any movement out of that alleyway." He picks up her profile and puts an X on top to tell everyone that she's not a suspect. "Though we have definite proof that there is more than one person in the murder sprees now. Beatrix's name isn't on the list."

Dazai nods confirming the man's observations "That's correct. Beatrix is in the database, though the profile you picked up was when she was young. It has to be outdated by now, and it doesn't have anything about her ability on the profile either. Now moving on to the next person on this list, Freya Bacarri, 30 years old. She lives Puebla, Mexico. When asked about where she was in the past 3 weeks, she stated that she was working at her job as a housekeeper. She gave Ango's men all the contacts to the people she's employed under, and it's checked out as well." He looks farther down in the profile "Her ability allows her to turn herself invisible, but when hit with water she becomes visible again, that includes getting her clothes and shoe wear wet as well."

Chuuya sighs from behind Dazai having been silent listening and letting Dazai do all the talking. "That mean she can't be a suspect either. If her foot were to splash into that puddle, she would have become visible to the camera's above in that alleyway."

The detective gives the same X mark on her profile after picking her profile apart. So they go through the others on the list little by little. Elijah Backstrom previously lived in Bellevue, Nebraska USA. Two years ago in a scuffle with an enemy gang he was killed from a single shotgun wound to the neck. He died a few minutes later after the bullet had hit a major blood vessel and he bled to death. He was 19 years old at the time of his murder. His ability allowed him to turn any color he touched to blend in with his surroundings. He was out of the question, after all a dead man can't tell no tales nor take no actions.

Carter Williamson 27 years old was currently in prison for a charge of count 10 murder. He's being held in a prison in his home country of the USA. Six years ago he had robbed a bank and had shot down three of his hostages, when the police came surrounding the building, he shot and killed 7 of the police officers. Carter ended up being shot in the stomach, but was recovered after sent to the hospital for emergency surgery. He's serving a life sentence, with a possibility of parole in 10 years. His ability like the others were about the same, but it didn't matter because he was behind bars all the way in the US.

Finally the last one Cyra Babins. She lives in Toledo, Spain. Her ability mimicking Scarlett's, but Cyra was also crippled in her hip at the age of 15 years old from being hit by a car speeding close to her house. She currently is 45 years old living with some of her relatives that assist in her growing old age. Her olden age has left her hardly walking, and its been confirmed that she isn't the one in the video. Cyra has been in and out of counseling and therapy for the past year for a fall in her home the last year.

"Well shit. That list ended up being a big pile of nothing." Walters says as he pulls out a pack of cigarettes. "Were back to square one now, and the only person of interest is this Beatrix girl." He says in slight frustration as he gets a cig out and lights it. Bringing it to his lips he inhales, the end turning red.

"Whoever has this camo ability isn't in the database." Chuuya says as he crosses his arms, sighing lowly. "Man this case is going to take us through the wringer."

"You got that right…" Walters says as he rests his elbows on the table. "We're basically back to square one."

Dazai stands up then his hands in his pockets "I'm going to give Ango a call, I'll be right back." As he proceeds to walk out of the room, and into a janitor closet where he's sure does not have any camera's as he pulls out his cell phone. Dialing he waits for the other line to pick up, and it doesn't take anytime at all for the other line to pick up.

"Dazai. I presume you've looked through the profiles already." Ango is quick to say in a calm voice over the line.

"Yes. Bad news is none of them checked out, but I have a feeling that you had a feeling it wasn't any of them on that list too." Dazai says lowly as he leans against the far wall of the darkened closet, the only light peeking out from beneath the bottom of the doorway.

A sigh is heard "Yes. Did the hair check out?"

Dazai unconsciously nods his head "Yeah it did. Tell me do you have anyone by the name of Beatrix Von Lothringen in your database?"

"Let me check right quick." Ango says as the sound of rapid but low typing can be heard over the line. For a few minutes nothing is really heard until Ango's voice comes back over the phone. "Yes she's here. What type of information do you need?"

"The name of her ability, how it works, how old she is currently, you know the basics." Dazai replies with a lazy wave of his hand.

"The name of her ability is 'Thou Shall Hold Thy Heart', and her ability allows her to make skin to skin contact, or preferably hand to skin contact where she proceeds to give her victims a mark. With the snap of her fingers she can manipulate anyone's heart, as a form of control or killing over the victim. She can have more than one victim marked at the same time. Let's see here, she was registered into the database when her adoptive parents found out about her ability at the age of 4 years old. She dropped from the radar about her whereabouts, etc at the age of 5 years old. Today she would be 18 years old, according to her birthdate. Her parents unknown, no siblings, nothing else really about her. She's the one behind the murders isn't she?" Ango asks after reading off the very brief profile pic.

"Yeah the information you just gave confirmed my theory. We have suspect number 1, but suspect number 2 is unknown." The bandage man sighs lowly as he sees a shadow walk past the door in a quick pace, before being gone again. "Though finding and catching Beatrix is going to be tricky, but if we can capture her, we can question her and hopefully get suspect number 2."

"This is bad, we have an unregistered ability user roaming the streets of Yokohama." Ango says chillingly over the phone. "We don't know the full extent of what they can do besides what you described before to me yesterday. If that's all, I ought to be going, I have a lot of work to catch up on. Should I send you Beatrix's profile pic?"

"Yeah that would be great. I got to relay this information to the detective over the case. Were still being held in a meeting." Dazai says his goodbyes as he goes back to the room only to run into the detective putting on his jacket in a rush. "What is it?"

Walters looks at him grimly "We have another body that was found ten minutes ago. There was a couple that were heading on there way home, and they got attacked. One was killed and the other managed to run away to a cop car making his rounds nearby the area. The suspects didn't give chase, they were gone by the time the cop made it back to the scene." The detective jots out as Dazai and the others follow him.

Meanwhile on top of a building overlooking the Yokohama docks looking back to where there prey got away, sits the very girl that they were investigating. Two others behind her, one with light lavender hair that was tied into ponytails on the side of her head hanging down. With lavender eyes, fair light skin, and a cat hair pin on one side of her face. She's wearing a light purple colored top with white frilly bottom of the top. The jacket over the top is Black on the outside, and on the inside is a pink color with the hoodie resembling bunny ears. She has black legging like pants on, with brown fuzzy knee high boots on her feet.

"So what should we do? One of our victims got away." The lavender haired girl asks in a light russian tone.

Beatrix just waves her gloved hand in the cool nights air with a smirk "Oh I wouldn't worry about that. They'll only talk for a little bit, but they won't have the chance to spill anything important."

"Did you mark them?" Theodore the other person behind her asks as he stands with his hands behind his back. His piercing red eyes that resembled the devil eyes inself looking down to her. His spiky midnight black hair blowing gently in the winds of the daytime breeze, as he has a pair of sunglasses with gems in the handle grasped in his hand. His pinstripe suit that consisted of a deep red, followed by a dark purple vest, with black pants and a black jacket. His polished shoes shining in the sun's rays.

"Yeah, they won't get very far." Beatrix says with a shrug as she swings her feet from the large pipe she's sitting on.

The lavender haired girl's face stays neutral "Why haven't you killed them yet? Surely you know what will happen if we were to be caught, right?"

"I want them to see someone die in their own offices is all. Them beat at their own game, and to have there only eyewitness in the case to bleed to death right in front of them." Beatrix says with a snicker. She turns to the girl "Hey since your unregistered, and you have that fake ID why don't you go get us something to eat?"

The lavender haired girl nods "Yes I'm a bit hungry myself. I know with you two it'll be harder to move around since your both registered into the system." She says as she starts walking to the stairs on the side of the building rooftop they sit or stand on. With a wave of her hand she walks down the stairs and out of sight as her image wavers out into the winds.

"You don't think they've caught on yet that there are more than one of us?" Theo asks the girl as he sits down beside her on the rooftop.

"They have." Is her simple answer, though it doesn't seem to make her nervous as she keeps watching the people below. "As long as we play our cards right we can grab a few more victims, and then move on to the next town. We didn't have enough time to grab the victims wallet this time, though if we did, it wouldn't have done much good since one of our victims got away."

When she sees Theo question look does she continue with a finger in the air as if naming off a fact. "You see they have caught on that there is more than one of us, but they don't know our identities yet. They may know mine, and have linked it up by now, or in the near future, but that's to be expected. They wouldn't suspect you though since I didn't meet you until I was 6 ½ years old, add the fact it's a good thing my real parents never claimed me on the papers or else you would have been a link as well." She stands up then "I'm going to go lay down for awhile until our little russian comes back with our food. Signal me on the phone if anything catches your eye."

Theo watches her go back into the trapdoor on the old apartments they sit above, and she is gone. So he sits there watching the streets below. When 10 minutes later he turns his eyesight to see someone watching him from below. Crinkling his eyes he acts normal while pulling out a pack of cigarettes. The man had bandages around his arms for some reason, with a long light brown trench coat. 'What's up with that man….' Theo thinks blowing out some smoke.

Though before he can do much more the man turns around and walks the other direction. A thought then comes across his brain as he quick glances back to where Beatrix went, and back to the now empty spot on the ground below. A slight panic forming into his chest. 'Wait. Did he see the three of us together, or did he just see me?' He puts out his smoke as he thinks real quick 'We can't risk it, we have to move. We can't risk getting caught or discovered.' He thinks quickly as he sends a message to both of the girls as he marches back to the door Beatrix disappeared behind in a rush.


	6. Chapter 6

Back at the police station Dazai arrives back to the room after his short walk in streets. His excuse being that he had something to check out, and said he'd be back. When he comes back to the meeting room he sees that Chuuya and Akutagawa were gone leaving Atsushi in the room looking around nervously. He turns to the tiger after sitting down "Where did the hatrack, and Ryu go?"

Atsushi turns to give his mentor a small smile, hands in his lap "Oh um they were both called in for another assignment, it was of importance and they couldn't skip out on it. Ryu said he would contact me when he's done and the two of us will go to the teashop again tonight. Chuuya on the other hand said that he was possibly stopping by a bar on the way back to his apartment." The tiger leans back slightly in his chair "Did you have a nice walk Dazai-san?"

Dazai nods with a small air of confidence "Yes I did." A sigh escapes his lips "Though I didn't find someone willing to commit double suicide with me."

Atsushi has a sweatdrop form on his forehead his own sigh escapes past his lips "Yep I knew you'd say that." He then gets a bit more serious as he looks back down to his lap. "They should be bringing the victim in soon, the detective sent me back here saying my presence wasn't needed there seeing as it's the same cause of death as all the others."

Dazai nods as he rests his hands on his chin in thought "Was the dead victim male or female?"

"Female in her mid twenties is what the detective told me, apparently the suspects left and didn't take the woman's wallet with them. Her partner is female as well, about the same age range." Atsushi informs his mentor.

"They didn't take the wallet because they knew it would have been pointless. One of the two victims got away, so even if they did take the wallet, the partner could of told the police everything." The bandaged man says just as the door opens and detective Walters walks through the doorway followed by a woman that looked a little over 5 feet, black shoulder length hair, wearing a light blue jacket, and tan pants. Her emerald green eyes slightly puffy from crying, as the light of the room shines off her tan skin, the detective pulls out a chair for the woman as she takes a seat.

The door of the room closes, and once everyone is seated does Walters speaks with a softness in his tone "Miss, I'm sorry for your loss. I know right now is a tough time for you, but we need to know details of the case, maybe you can be the breakthrough that can crack this case wide open."

The woman wipes her eyes lightly with a tissue, her voice low and meek "My name is Asuka Saito. My partner's name was Mai Valero, the two of us were engaged and were planning on getting married next year when the Sakura trees blossomed."

The detective nods shaking her hand lightly as he crosses his fingers together "Again I'm sorry for your loss miss Saito. Now it's very important that we get as much information as possible in your statement. We want to get this case broken open, and justice served for the victims of the case. Now give me the details of what you two were doing before you were attacked, and details as best as you can of when the attack was going on."

Asuka nods a small hiccup coming up her throat as she begins "Well me and Mia, today we both had a rare day off on both of our work schedules so we decided to go hang out together, and go to this popular bar and grill we have always got a drink and a bite to eat at. We went inside about 3 hours ago, and chatted about are upcoming plans in life, our future together, and stuff about how our work was going. The two of us had a good time together, so once we had our fun we split the bill, and went on our way. For awhile as we were walking there was this person behind us that would turn every corner we would, and she never showed her face."

"She? What color hair did she have? How long was her hair? What was she wearing?" The detective is quick to fire off the questions, his brow furrowed and focused. "Lastly how did you know it was a girl?"

The woman eyes go wide at the barrage of questions but then cuts back to the table surface as memories go through her brain at a time "I could tell by the body structure of the person's see I work in the fashion line and I know the body structures of men and women of all sizes. She had brownish red hair that was slightly curly in places but mostly straight that went down almost to her back. She had her hair framing her face sticking out of the hoodie that was over her head. I could tell she had a light tan but mostly white skin, and I estimated about five foot, ten inches tall. On her hands she was wearing black biker like gloves I think, but they were definitely black. Though the hoodie she had on was black with white stripes down the sides and arms, dark red skinny jeans, and tennis shoes." the woman names off very detailed as the detective has a tape recorder going in the room for evidence later on down the road.

"Did she ever show her face? Like the color of her eyes?" Walters questions once again.

"Yes. When the two of us figured out that something was wrong, we tried running, and she gave chase. She had a gun with her, and before we knew it we ran into an alleyway of some of the nastier sides of the slums. There we were at a dead end, when she ran into the alleyway with us blocking our path. It's then I saw her face, and her eyes were like honey." Asuka says as she starts choking up, tears welling up in her eyes at the memory.

"Tell me was this the girl you saw? The picture is outdated but the features in someone's face always stays the same." Walters asks her as he picks up the remote and clicks the screen back on for the woman to see, and the reaction is near instant as a small cry escapes her lips.

"Yes that's her! She took off her gloves, and ran at the two of us. We thought that she was going to shoot us so we tried fighting against her, and we kicked out at her. Though the next thing we knew she grabbed ahold of our wrists. I felt a burning on the inside of my wrist, and she just let go. There were no gunshots, nothing. The next thing I know Mia is clutching her chest, gasping for air, and I tried to help her but she pushed me away and tried to get me to get help….." She's silent for a few moments as she mutters out lowly "I'll never forget the sight of Mia's heart pumping red in that girls hands, smiling gleefully down to Mia. I don't remember how I got away but next thing I knew I was running to a stop in front of a police cruiser in a panicked run. By the time the police came back for me, I knew that Mia was dead."

"Do you remember anymore people with her? Can you show us this mark?" Walters asks gently, trying to comfort the woman as best as he could, knowing she's going through a difficult time at the moment.

Asuka turns over her wrist to show them, on her arm is a black mark that has what looks like a burned heart with a beautiful cursive B in the middle of it. Walters takes out a camera as he takes a photo of the mark for even more evidence.

"Well…" She begins but before she can say anything more her eyes go wide. Her hand instantly reaches up to clutch at her heart, as small gasps of breath breaks through her lips. Walters is alert and on his feet calling someone through the phone for an ambulance. Atsushi is standing back in surprise but not really knowing what's going on. As Dazai notices the mark glowing, with the black heart almost realistically pumping wildly on the girls skin like it had a mind of it's own. In seconds he grabs his hand over the girls wrist in hopes of disabling the mark or ability, but nothing happens.

"Why can't you disable it?" The tiger asks in a panic behind the bandaged man.

The girls lips are turning blue, and not even two second later she stills, and her body slumps over on the table surface. It's then blood starts pouring out from between her lips, her teeth stained red with thick bubbling crimson. Her eyes go dim, the light dying out in her eyes, still wide with panic, as her limp hand slides from her chest and into her lap.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" The detective is shouting as he runs his hands through his hair in frustration. Atsushi is looking in horror at the now dead woman laying on the table in front of him. There was nothing that he could have done, and since Dazai's ability didn't work on the mark, that meant he would have had to disable the ability user themselves in person while they were using their ability.

He looks over to Dazai that slowly takes the same wrist on the woman from before only to discover that it was gone. "As I thought, the only way to get rid of the mark is death." He says lowly.

"Did she predict this?" The tiger asks once again, eyes shining against the artificial lights overhead.

"Yes." Dazai answers back. "She wanted to kill this woman in front of us, knowing that we would be getting a statement from her."

The detective is on the phone with someone else out in the hallway, ranting a bit as he threw his hands in the air frantically. His eyebrows pinched together, and face wrinkled up almost resembling a prune left out in the sun to dry. Atsushi looks back down at the growing blood pool, that's now dripping off the table in long strides of crimson. The woman's skin ashen in such a short timeframe, as he clenches his teeth. It all happened so fast, he's sure nobody really predicted this outcome.

"That's the end of our session." A man in his mid 50's says as he walks into the room. His greying hair peppered with streaks of silver and grey. A lone beard that looked to be neatly trimmed stood out on his face, as his chocolate eyes looks down to the woman. His coat slightly soaked as he puts an umbrella off to the side of the room, the black fabric knocking off water particles into the sleek basket just for such objects. "It'd be a waste of time to send her body off to an autopsy, since we know the cause of her death. She'll be sent to the same morgue as her partner for funeral preparations once we get ahold of there family." The man takes his eyes off the gory sight to look at Dazai. "You two may go for now, we'll give you a call when we need you to come in again."

"Understood." Dazai says lowly as he stuffs his hands into his pockets and walks to the entrance "Atsushi lets go."

Atsushi nods proceeding to follow his mentor "Yes sir." The two walk out of the police station, a sadness in his heart over the woman. They end up working at the office for the rest of the day, well Atsushi more so than Dazai, said man sneaking sheets of his work over to the tigers desk when he thought no one was looking. Though throughout the day Atsushi's been getting these weird vibes since coming back to the office. It felt like he was being watched as the cackles on his neck raised.

His lilac purple eyes look out a window after getting the feeling again in the copy room, as the papers were copying off, he tries to see what his instincts were biting at him about. Outside the sun was going down signaling almost the end of the office hours before everyone went home for the day. Earlier he got a text message from Aku that he couldn't make it for the tea shop that night, for he got called for another assignment and couldn't skip it. The boss wanted his expertise in the job, so he was in a bind. Atsushi told him not to worry about it, and hoped they could meet another time. Everyone was making last minute assignments as they were fixing to head home. Yosano and Kouyka were about to head out to there shared apartment, the girl having moved in with the older woman a few months prior, leaving Atsushi all alone in that apartment.

A chill came through the tigers body as he cuts his eyes back to the window, breaking out of thought only to see someone staring at him from the shadows in an alleyway of a shop across from the agency building. He could only see the lower half of there face, but he could tell by the cruel but manic smirk across the person face, that there intentions were not good. When they see him turn to look at them the smirk only grows bigger, and as they stand there for a few more seconds, they turned on there heel, and walk back into the darkness.

'Am I there target?' Atsushi thinks his eyes growing wide with fear, clutching the papers with fear. His body slightly shaking 'Should I tell someone? Should I tell Dazai?' The tiger thinks as he looks around the room, moving away from the window. The beeping of the machine finishing with the copies snaps his out of his panicked thoughts. Quickly gathering up the papers, he makes a mad dash back to the main office, and turns in the papers. Dazai, Kunikida, and him are the only ones left in the office, seeing as everyone else has left already.

"Your done for today Atsushi, you may go home. See you tomorrow, and be prepared for any new cases coming into the office." Kunikida says in a serious tone and goes back to finishing the last of his paperwork. Atsushi turns to Dazai.

"Aren't you going to go home as well Dazai-san?" He asks meekly.

"He has a few more pages of paperwork to finish, and only then I'll allow him to go home. I'll be staying here of course to make sure that the bandage waster doesn't slack off." The glasses wearer says pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. He sits back down at his desk, and picks back up a pen from a holder on the desk surface. "Go home Atsushi, don't start feeling sorry for someone like him."

'That's not what I'm worried about. I was so hoping that Dazai would be going home, so I wouldn't be walking home alone.' Atsushi thinks frantically. He shakes his head lightly as he nods. "Yes sir." Is his response. With no other choice he walks outside the building, hugging his chest as he walks home in the cool night air.

When he's about a mile from his apartment he leans against a building, looking out into the night. Worry filling his chest like a damn with a big crack while holding back tons of water.

"Are you Atsushi Nakajima?" He hears near his ear. The voice purs out, the breath from the question tickling the back of his ear, as he feels a presence behind him.


	7. Chapter 7

Panic swells in his chest like a tight knot whenever the breath of the person tickles the back of his ear, as he leaps away from them by instinct. Looking back he's expecting to see someone but to his surprise,...there is no one there. He's frantic to look around for any intruder, as he transform his arms into those of a white with black striped tiger pattern, the thick muscles of tiger form arm tightening the more he clenches his fist.

'Who was that?! Where did they go?' He thinks in a hurried mess as he continues to be on the defense. `I'm all alone out here, so if it's an ability user, I won't be able to call for help. Having Dazai around would be really amazing right now, since I don't know what I'm up against or how many.' His wide eyes keep searching for anything that might look out of place, but he finds nothing. His nerves frayed and near singed at the spook he had just experienced. A small trickle of sweat runs down his face as he nervously tries to loosen up, but not quite putting down his defenses yet. He doesn't know if that just now was a figment of his imagination or if it was real.

He waits around for a few more minutes before he decides to just straight up bolt to his apartment where he can see the light on for the siblings a couple doors down from his own, if they were still awake surely he could go to them for help. In a blur that he hardly remembers he's in his cozy little apartment with the door locked behind him, breath heaving from his chest. With the lights on and the door locked he felt a little bit better to be in a familiar setting instead of on the streets where he had any opportunity to get jumped. He slides down the door, lightly hitting the flooring with a thump.

His legs almost feel like jelly with how fast he ran to get to his apartment, he hardly even remembers running up the stairs in such a rush to get away from that voice. Pulling in a shuddering breath he thinks 'That voice it felt so real. I could swear that I could even feel there breath tickling the hair on the back of my ear. I could feel their presence behind me like they were just standing there.' He hugs his knees to his chest as he just stares out into his living area that connects to the very small kitchen he owned. It's then that something clicked 'That was a woman's voice.' Yeah now that his mind went back to that moment, he could clearly hear a young woman's voice coming through the static that previously was blocking his senses.

'How did she know my name though?' He thinks once again, as he gets up shakily, only to plop down on his unfolded futon not very far from the door. 'No ordinary person would sneak up behind someone like that and whisper that kind of question into their ear.' His eyes go wide a bit further as another thought comes to him. 'Wait! Could it be that person that I saw outside the agency earlier? Did they follow me the whole time?' His thoughts were running a thousand miles a minute with all kinds of questions and speculations.

Shakily after about 10 minutes of just sitting on the floor, collecting his thoughts, he gets up to go into the kitchen. He takes out his old flip phone to see if he had any messages from anyone, while he grabs his rice cooker from the side of the cabinets, and proceeds to get out a bag of rice he purchased cheaply just a few days prior. It doesn't even take him five minutes to get some of the rice cooking in the cooker, as he turns back to his phone. He has a few from Dazai, that as usual is complaining about having to stay after hours to finish up paperwork.

**[Dazai:Can you believe that Kunikida is forcing me to work like this. :(]**

**[Dazai:I just ordered a new suicide book a few days ago, and I was so eager to check it out!]**

**[Dazai:Atsushi come save me!]**

**[Dazai:God Kuni is such a na...**]

The last message was cut short when it was sent, all Atsushi can guess is that Kunikida caught him in the act of slacking off on his phone yet again, and had snatched the device from the bandaged mans hands, or started chewing the other out. It brings a tiny smile to his face, as he feels a bit safer inside his own apartment with all the windows and doors locked. He proceeds to check on his other messages, seeing one from Aku.

**[R****ashoumon:Sorry about tonight. I couldn't avoid having a last minute mission. I'll try to make it up to you sometime tomorrow or another day whenever I'm free enough from work.]**

Atsushi clicks the reply option under the message.

**[Jinko:It's ok. I just got home, and I'm making chazuke at the moment for dinner. I'm kind of late coming home to, had some backed up paperwork to finish up.]**

He sends the message, putting down his phone on the counter to check on the rice in the cooker. Nodding his head more to himself as a check of making sure everything was going smoothly, he goes towards the upper cabinets to get out a canister of green tea he always had on stock in his kitchen, for that was his favorite tea. Getting out a tea kettle he busies himself measuring out the tea, and water he needed, always being sure to measure a little extra so he could drink some solely from a cup while he ate his food.

With that out of the way in a matter of minutes, he fires the pilot light underneath the kettle to boil. He turns back to his phone to see a message from Aku.

**[Rashoumon:That's good. So am I the only one getting messages from Dazai-san about him complaining about having to stay after hours?]**

The tiger giggles a little bit as he sits on a low stool that he had set off the side of the kitchen, sitting in it he texts back.

**[Jinko:No your not the only one. He was mid into the fourth text, before he was cut off.]**

**[Rashoumon:Cut off?]**

**[Jinko:Yeah, Kunikida got onto him I presume. Earlier he got caught trying to dump the rest of his paperwork onto my desk, and Kunikida nearly made everyone in the office deaf by the time he was done yelling at Dazai-san. He forced Dazai-san to finish all that paperwork for the rest of the evening, and now.]**

**[Rashoumon:Do you want me to tell Chuuya about it? He would really enjoy kicking Dazai-sans 'ass' as he puts it.]**

Atsushi unconsciously shakes his head, knowing that Aku wouldn't be able to see him as he continues the conversation. Feeling a bit better as the minutes tick by, though still a bit shaken from earlier still.

**[Jinko:That won't be necessary. I'm sure Chuuya is off somewhere drunk right now, and he isn't in the mood for being bothered right now.]**

**[Rashoumon:You're right. He got drunk off of two shots of liquor half an hour ago. Thankfully I wasn't stuck with him, my sister was. She keeps telling me over my messages that she is frankly getting sick of hearing Chuuya-san rattle on about how much of a bastard Dazai-san is.]**

**[Jinko:I would as well in her situation. ^_^]**

Atsushi continue to message the other for a bit more when Atsushi hears the kettle whistling from where he's sitting, as he is quick to put his phone back on the counter, and shut off the pilot light from beneath the kettle. Being gentle he picks it up by the handle and sets a pad under the kettle for it to cool down on the counter beside the stove. Next he checks the rice cooker to see the rice perfectly soft and fluffy just the way he likes it. Turning the cooker off he gets a bowl from the shelves above.

Scooping some of the rice out of the cooker, his mouth is drooling already at just the stream rising off of the mountain of white. He plops a good serving of the rice into the bowl, and then brings it to the cooling down kettle. He pours a generous amount of green tea over the rice like it was a five star meal, and to him it was, since it's what he's eaten most of his life. He wishes he had some cuts of chicken or pork to go in the dish, but looking back at his budget for the week on groceries he couldn't afford any meats on the small paycheck he gets from the agency.

He had some vegetables in the crisper of his small refrigerator, but he was saving those for another time. Kyouka was thinking about coming over one night in the next few days, and making ramen noodles with some sliced vegetables, and tofu slices. Picking out a spoon from the few he had in the utensil drawer, he scoops up a heaping helping of the tea on rice, and plops it in his mouth. Being quick he pours himself a cup of the semi hot green tea and with both in hand he walks to his living room sofa, setting both on the low table in front of the sofa.

He picks up the remote lying on the same table, and turns on the old boxy TV that was gifted to him a few months after he became a member of the agency. He never had a TV to watch while in the orphanage, and even though this TV was considered ancient history to most people in today's time, for him he was just grateful to have the old thing, despite it only providing okay service, and the only thing available to watch, was cable or to pop in a movie. It was something he could use as background noise, so the apartment didn't feel so empty with him just there over 90% of the time.

He had an old radio as well, that he had to fight through the static half the time to find something to provide as background noise as well. Though some of the stations he came across, he found to greatly enjoy the music or radio shows that aired over the bulky radio. Mostly classical music, but sometimes he would find some good modern music. He clicks the TV to some news channel, as they draw on about updates of the weather, the latest fashion, and so on. He has it loud enough to hear about what's being talked about, but not high enough it blows out his eardrums. The thing that people are talking about the most are the most recent in the murder cases, that has been dubbed 'Heartstring murders'. The news anchor and everyone he could tell were on edge, as a woman in her mid 40's gets the camera pointed at her.

"The latest we've got was from our own police force in Yokohama station. Stated today that they may have a break in the case, but not many details have been revealed to the public yet. An interview from the senior detective division made a statement today in an email that they may have an idea as to who the suspect may be. Though they said that need to be 100% sure it's there suspect, more is going on in there investigation, but since the case is ongoing not many details are being allowed to be leaked out to the public. Though many in the public fear that they'll end up as the next victim to be found. Many hope that the suspect will be caught soon so they can rest easy at night once more." The woman says in a very professional manner, looking completely at the camera.

She continues on about the subject as Atsushi takes another bite of his food, as he perks up. 'I left my phone in the kitchen.' He thinks as he's quick to retrieve his phone, and lays back down on the old, but comfy sofa. He checks his messages once more to see another one from Akutagawa a few minutes ago.

**[Rashoumon:Have you been watching the news?]**

**[Jinko:Yes. I'm watching it right now. They aren't telling the public it's an ability user that is behind the murders. Why is that? Don't you think they have a right to know?]**

**[Rashoumon:They do have the right to know, but the reason they aren't telling the public that one simple fact is because most already have a bad image on the rest of us ability users. If they tell the public it's an ability user, they'll start being wary of the known ability users in this city, and start to make accusations.]**

**[Jinko:I guess that is a valid point.]**

**[Rashoumon:So what happened after me and Chuuya were called back to work?]**

With a heavy heart he tells the other everything of what happened at the police station, in the interview room. He felt tears comes back to his eyes as he watched that woman die once again in his head, knowing there was nothing he could have done for the woman at the time. He tells the other all that he knows of this Beatrix girl, and that there was more than one suspect.

**[Rashoumon:If Dazai-san couldn't disable the mark on the girls wrist, we'll have to hunt down the actual ability user and stop her from killing aymore people. If she can kill people that easily with her ability, than she's far more dangerous than my ability is. She can kill long and short range. Watch yourself, she may come after one of us if she knew were close to cracking her.]**

**[Jinko:I know. I'll be watching out. You best watch yourself as well. The only one that can't be affected by her ability is Dazai-san, but if she were to figure out his ability, she may try to attack the rest of us when he's not around, or distracted.]**

**[Rashoumon:Exactly. Does Dazai-san know anymore about her?]**

**[Jinko:I don't know it's hard to read that man. I can't ask him either, he'll keep dodging my questions, or play the 20 questions game himself with me. He went for that walk when the aftermath of the couple was brought up, but he never said anything about his walk.]**

**[Rashoumon:I have to get back to work. I'll text you again when I'm free. Don't hesitate to call me directly if a problem arises, we don't know this girls location, her accomplishes, or when she'll strike.]**

**[Jinko:Got it. Ttyl]**

With that message sent he lets out a sigh, and puts his phone down on the tables surface. His tea on rice has gotten a tad cold, but it still held some warmth to it. He starts eating once again, as he decides to change the channel to a cooking show instead to pass the time. The warmth of the meal warming his being up as he tucks in his legs against his chest, and watching a girl making some kind of beef dish on the program. It looked good, and he so wished that he had the funds to make something like that for a meal one night.

Thus it was just a dream for now, so for the next half hour he sits on the couch curled up in an old blanket watching as the competition heated up against the four competitors. His meal long finished, as with his tea, both dishes sitting on the table in front of him ready to be washed at any time. It's when another 2 hours pass of watching cooking competitions, the clock beside the couch reading 9:50pm that he realizes he hears some kind of shuffling outside his apartment door.

He was half dozing off before to notice, but as he listens to the sound a bit more he hears that it's right outside of his apartment door. He wonders if it may be Dazai or one of the others at the ADA, but what would they be doing outside his door mulling around. Most everyone in the ADA would be getting ready for bed or already in bed by now. The siblings live a couple doors down from his own apartment, so he could probably go to them if he needed help with anything.

He took his shoes off long ago, so being as quiet as he can be he tiptoes to his door, the blanket laying on the cushions of the couch forgotten, but still holding warmth. He reaches the small peephole to see if he can see anything, but as his focus comes about, there is nothing outside his door, drawing a blank to him. 'What? Could I just have been hearing things?' He thinks as he continues to look through the peephole, but nothing shows up after a couple of minutes of looking out the small hole.

He didn't know what could be out there, so opening the door was a no go. After all he would watch horror flicks with Ryu, and Kyouka at times in the past, and he knew all to well what happened if someone opened the door to there house after hearing strange or unusual noises outside there house. His mind was racing with what could be out there, he kind of wanted to know, but at the same time he wanted to not find out.

He waits for another five minutes of watching out the hole, before he gives up and goes back to the couch to see that it's a few minutes past 10pm. A yawn escapes past his lips as he decides it's time to go to bed, so picking up his dishes he turns off the TV, and picks up the blanket putting it under his arm. He puts the blanket over the back of the stool as he puts his dishes in the sink, deciding to wash them tomorrow for it was to late at night to do them that night. He puts up the remaining of his meal together in one dish to heat up for the morning, and sets it in the fridge. He doesn't have to get to work until 9:30 the next morning, so he'll have plenty of time to eat, and wash the dishes.

He makes sure everything is locked and the lights shut off before he goes to his bedroom right across from the kitchen. It was fairly small, but he didn't own much so he didn't care either way, it was still much better than the sleeping conditions of the orphanage. He drags his extra futon out of the closet, and gets it set up in no time at all. Next he changes into his night clothes, throwing the others in the laundry hamper, and goes to get his phone that's normally in his pocket, but it's not there. It's that second he remembers he left it for the second time somewhere behind.

He steps out of his bedroom, and back into the darkness with a small flashlight to find his phone lying on the table in front of the box TV. He cocks his head to the side 'Huh? Was it in that position whenever I left?' He thinks a bit confused, the need for sleep messing with his mind a bit. He just shrugs as he picks up the phone, and the charger along the way before returning back to his bedroom, closing the door behind him. Atsushi flips the phone open to see that it's nearly dead, and plugs the device into the wall to charge as he snuggles into his futon loosing consciousness quickly. Meanwhile the shuffling is quietly heard by his door once again, but closer than before. Outside of the tigers window, storm clouds are rolling in, with lightning crackling across the sky in bright yellow streaks of gold. A flash streaks across the sky illuminating the sky outside, and in one of the windows by the door a black figure stands.


	8. Chapter 8

**Beep! Beep! Beep!**

The alarm beside the futon on the floor is the first thing that Atsushi hears through the haze of his sleep muddled mind. He reaches out a hand from the warmth it cocoons him in, to feel the cool air of the bedroom awaiting the skin of his hand. The weather was getting colder outside as it was mid fall approaching winter. Since his walls weren't that thick, the cold air found small holes, among other places to seep into the apartments close to the ADA. He was saving up to buy a small heater that could warm up the place, he was close to his full budget, but not quite there yet.

He taps the little black button on the top of the alarm, as it shuts off, leaving a silent but calm atmosphere to the room. Atsushi peeks out from under the covers to see that it was 8 in the morning. He remembers that he still has some leftover tea on rice in the fridge to eat, as his stomach growls at him as to remind him that it needs food. Slowly he peels the rest of his body out of his futon, knowing he's got a good hour in a half before he has to go to work.

So he goes through his normal morning routine first taking a shower that takes 20 minutes tops, ,changing into another one of his usual outfits, putting his old clothes in the small washing room, and folding up his futon and putting it back into the small closet close to the bottom. With that he closes the closet, he turns to unplug his phone from the wall, but stops short upon the sight before him.

The phone charger was folded up beside the phone, that wasn't plugged into the wall anymore. _'That's weird...I don't remember unplugging my phone last night. I remember I put it on charge before I went to bed, but after I fell asleep, nothing comes to my mind.'_ He picks the device up and starts to inspect it for any damage, but ends up not finding anything strange. Maybe he did wake up sometime last night and unplugged the phone whenever he was half asleep, and just couldn't remember.

He shrugs his shoulders, but turns to look out his bedroom window whenever he heard a low rumble of thunder. There was dark menacing clouds above, that looked fat with a heavy downpour of rain, ready to unleash at any minute. With a groan he thinks 'Great. Just what I need. I'll have to hunt up that old umbrella I have around here somewhere.' He slips the phone into his pocket, and leaves the bedroom to enter the kitchen.

As he's getting the bowl out of the fridge a knock comes to the door spooking him. It doesn't take him very long to get to the door, and peek through the hole. Outside he sees Akutagawa coughing lightly into his fist, and he opens the door with a smile. "Hey I wasn't expecting you to come today."

Akutagawa nods as he walks into the room, the door being closed behind them. "I sent you a text last night, but by your reaction I'm guessing that you haven't checked your messages yet."

Atsushi nods "Yeah. I got up at 8 o'clock. When did you send it?"

"Around 11 last night. I got off work around that time, and was heading home. I put in the message that it was my day off, and that I was coming over in the morning." Aku says walking to the couch and sitting down. He picks up the remote, turning on the TV.

Atsushi smiles lightly heading back to the kitchen "Have you eaten yet? I have some chazuke leftover from last night. I was just about to warm it up when I heard you knock on the door."

Aku looks over his way "No. I'll have a small bowl of it if you would. Do you have any tea?"

Atsushi gets to the kitchen taking the top off the bowl, and reaching out to get two smaller bowls out of the cabinets. "Not yet, but I was about to make some. I have to head into work soon, I have work at 9:30." He says busying himself with the meal, and getting the kettle water boiling.

"When was your last day off?" Akutagawa asks once more, flipping through the channels on the small box TV.

The tiger perks up trying to remember the last time he had a day off. "Today is Tuesday, and most of the time I have one day off a week, but sometimes I'll have a couple days off at times, usually when I'm not feeling well, or I'm too exhausted or injured to get into work. But the last time I had a day off was last Monday. Everyone at the agency every week depending on the schedule, has different days off every week."

"Why don't you call in today for a day off?" The rashoumon user asks.

Atsushi looks at the other, having put the kettle on the stovetop to boil, and now separating the meal out into two bowls on the counter. "I can't do that, me and Dazai are still working on this case."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, Dazai texted Chuuya earlier saying that he was ditching work and coming over for a surprise visit to the others apartment to possibly burn all his tacky hats." Akutagawa says as he finally settles the TV on the news channels, not really having much of an option with the cable system. He plucks the remote lightly back on the low table. "If he's ditching work, you at least deserve to get the day off."

"What if some new reports come in? Should we go and get Dazai-san from Chuuya?" Atsushi asks, knowing that Dazai would have pulled something like this eventually. A day off sounded nice, especially since Aku got one of his own rare days off. There schedules very rarely matched up so the two of them didn't get very much time to hang out for very long outside of work. He wanted to keep track of any new murders, or cracks in the case the suspects may have made recently. "Has there been any more cases of murders?"

Akutagawa coughs into his hand as he answers "No. There has no cases not since that couple yesterday. The suspects usually strike in the night, but for some reason last night they didn't kill anyone."

Atsushi feels a bit at ease, but he can't help but worry that eventually they'll strike again soon. "Do you think they moved on? Or found out that we caught on to them?" The tiger asks while heating up the bowls of chazuke separately.

"They may have, and will try to lay low for awhile. We only know of Beatrix, but if she has another accomplish like what Dazai suspects, then that just makes everything worse for us. He reported that her accomplish wasn't in the system." Akutagawa says lowly, as he turns his eyesight towards the tiger. "How come the agency hasn't that detective look into the case? I hear he's a genius at that sort of stuff."

Atsushi rubs the back of his head sheepishly "Well he's currently in another city with the president, doing some business there. I don't know what sort of business, and it's apparently to urgent for Ranpo to come back for a case like this, so were stuck with Dazai-san. The president said he didn't know when they would be back. Kunikida is currently in charge of the office, the standing co-president as it was put."

The rashoumon user just makes a hm sound, and going back to watching the latest news. A different news anchor is going on about the 'Heartstring Murders', rambling about the same stuff as the woman the night before, so there was no new updates. Finally some time goes by as the food, and drink is ready, Atsushi gets a tray he has reserved for occasions like this as he sets both bowls and cups down on the tray surface. He walks to the table setting the tray down, picking up one of the cups and handing it to his partner.

He picks up his own cup taking a sip as he glances to the clock on the table beside the couch. He sees that it's 8:57am, he's got just a little over half an hour til work. Taking another small sip he sets the cup down and proceeds to pick up his bowl of chazuke. Scooping some into his spoon he takes an appetizing bite, the flood of flavors invading his taste buds. Atsushi looks over to the news channel, the woman finishing talking about the murders from yesterday, going on about the police station not giving out much details nor giving a statement to the public, that so wanted some answers this far into the case.

"…..the detective over the case has yet to give a confirmable statement to the mass today concerning the murder that occured in there own police station yesterday." The middle aged woman says with a professional air, yet her face not showing much emotion either. "When will this senseless murder spree come to an end? The public is eager for any kind of answers or suspect in the case. They want to feel safe once more on their own streets." She picks up some stacks of paper as she turns to look at a younger man beside herself, folding her fingers together on the table surface below. "Now Mr. Uchiho, there have been rumors starting up that this is the work of an ability user. We all know Yokohama is crawling all over the city with ability users, but some of the public have made concerning notes, saying that if the city won't do there jobs, they will step up and finish the job for them. What are some of your takes on this subject. Should we start doubting the ability users walking amongst us or not?"

The man pushes his glasses up further on the bridge of his nose, a serious gaze contemplating over his facial features. "My view on this subject is, it's a high possibility that this murder spree is the work of such an ability user. The autopsy reports just prove part of the many theories, the heart burst inside the chest cavity, with no wounds littering the bodies of each victim. Now how would the average person or killer in this case be able to do such an incredible, yet impossible murder? Without having a wound on the body to prove it?" He pauses for a minute before continuing "Though I myself is not going to start accusing every ability user on the street of these horrendous, cold murders. We have to look at every angle of the case, and interview as many people as possible. The police are doing the best they can on the help and resources that they have reached out to get, or have found in the case so far. They did say they have a possible murder suspect, though have stated when asked by the press, that they will not be releasing any names, information, or photo's of said suspect. They are looking into alibi's and checking out statements from many people that think may have been linked with any of the victims, or a possible murder suspect to said people." He goes to say more when the woman interrupts him, looking like she was mad.

"If they have a possible suspect, don't you think the public deserves to know said individuals name and photo? In case they come across them, they won't have a clue that they are talking to a possible murderer. I get the case is still going on, but the public deserves some answers to their questions." The woman says huffily. In a way, Atsushi got the woman's point of view.

She did talk about some interesting things, as he continues to watch the two bicker amongst themselves while the camera's were still rolling. Atsushi could understand why the detective wasn't willing to release the information that he presented to him and Dazai yesterday. People would go insane, if they heard that kind of news, and demand the person responsible, there head or heads on a silver platter. It was safer at this point in the investigation to just keep as much information as possible to themselves, until they have more about the ongoing case. Though at the same time, if people couldn't see the face of the killer stalking the streets, how are they supposed to know who to look out for, who to trust, or who strike up a conversation with.

That Beatrix girl could have been anywhere in this city, doing who knows what, and no one especially him would be none the wiser. Hiis mind then goes back to the report of Beatrix, the look on the girls face in the photo provided by the orphanage, it was an old photo, that was years old, but it could also provide a clue as well. He perks up as he looks over to Akutagawa. "Hey the report for Beatrix's orphanage photo, do you think we could trace that photo back to the orphanage she came from, and get some information from them?" The tiger asks the other.

Akutagawa's eyes go wide as he puts his bowl on the table, hand on his chin. "That could be a possible lead as to where she could be." He looks down to Atsushi "We could try. First we have to bring it up with Dazai-san. Though you could ask to do your work from home, make it a day off sort of thing, and we could look into these leads."

Atsushi nods pulling out his phone to text.

**[Atsushi:Hey Kunikida is there anything you need me to do in the office today besides paperwork?]**

A minute later he gets a text back from the glasses wearing man.

**[Kunikida:No there isn't. Why?]**

**[Atsushi:Well I think I came up with a new lead for the case that me and Dazai are working on. I was going to consult with him, and see what could be done. Could you give me this day off for that? I promise I'll do all my paperwork when I come back tomorrow, plus the extra that is going to come with it.]**

**[Kunikida:Sure kid. Have the day off, you've earned it. You've had to put up with Dazai for this case so that is punishment enough, though I do expect you to be here at 8:00 in the morning tomorrow sharp, and finish the paperwork laying on your desk. Do I make myself clear?]**

**[Atsushi:Yes sir. I'll be sure to be there tomorrow morning. Thanks you for granting me the day off today.]**

Atsushi puts his phone down with a smile, and looks over to the other. "Ok I got the day off. Although the price is to come in extra early tomorrow morning, and finish my paperwork." He looks down to hs phone "Should I contact Dazai-san, and ask him?"

Akutagawa shakes his head "Yes. That would be a wise decision." He sits back patting the seat beside him "The report we would be getting back would be in 1 of the four languages they speak over in Austria. Which would be German, Hungarian, Slovanian, and Austrian German." He cocks his head to the side "Unless you happen to know any of those languages Sushi?"

Atsushi shakes his head, a nervous look on his face. "Um no. I only know Japanese, and a little bit of english, but that's all my knowledge of the world's languages go." He perks up "Does that mean you know one of those languages?Or Dazai? Chuuya?"

Aku makes a low rumble in his throat "I know a little bit of french, only because of a rendezvous mission overseas at one time with Chuuya. It was enough to get me by for what I needed to complete. Now Chuuya is fluent in French I do know, he's taken a lot of missions overseas in France and Italy. Dazai may know, but it's hard getting a solid answer out of him."

Atsushi sighs as he picks his phone back up. "Yeah he is. I don't know if he's going to answer his phone or not. I'm going to try though." The tiger clicks the messaging text box and types out.

**[Atsushi:Dazai? I need to ask you something.]**

He sends the message, as he waits for a message to come back through, wondering if Dazai is still at Chuuya's apartment or was kicked out by the redhead. Not a minute later a message pops up on his screen.

**[Dazai:Yes What is it, my little tiger protege!]**

**[Atsushi:How we saw the report of Beatrix yesterday, is there a possibility we could check into the orphanage where she came from? Maybe they could provide us some answers to some of the questions we have concerning her. Like her behavior patterns, what she did in her free time, etc]**

**[Dazai:That is a good lead. I'll call Ango and see what he can do. I'll send over the report whenever I receive it, and share my findings with you.]**

**[Atsushi:Ok. I'm at home. Kunikida granted me a day off. Akutagawa is here with me as well, he has the day off too.]**

**[Dazai:Boo. He never gives me a day off whenever I ask for one off. :(]**

**[Atsushi:Maybe because you don't show up half the time ditching work. The times you do come into work, you either dump your work off on someone else or fall asleep.]**

**[Dazai:You hang out to much with Akutagawa and Chuuya, you never used to sass me!]**

**[Atsushi:Well get used to it.]**

He sits back after typing everything out, to wait for the results to come around. For a few more hours he and the other just sit to talk, watch TV, and fill the time of waiting, until there is a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Atsushi yells out.

Without a beat Dazai and Chuuya come waltzing through the doorway, closing the door behind themselves. Both Atsushi and Akutagawa perk up when they see an envelope in the bandaged wasters hands.

"Did you find out some good information?" The tiger asks, leaning forward in anticipation.

Dazai nods pulling out a pillow from nearby and plops himself down on the floor. "Yes and no. Though there is some very interesting information that can be found in these pages. It didn't take very long to get the information either." He takes out a sheet of paper and begins to read. "The orphanage that one Beatrix Von Lothringen was living in until the age of 4 years old, was located in Sheyr, Austria. It housed a total of 350 kids, and was relatively small, with an even smaller staff. They worked with what budget they had, feeding what mouths they could, with multiple coverups in forms of abuse, neglect, and even death found in their records when an investigation went on two years after Beatrix was adopted by the Perterson couple. Just when the orphanage was to be closed down, and the kids taken elsewhere, with all staff members arrested, the next morning the place was found to have been burnt to the ground. They found just outside the orphanage, the headmaster, and one small girl had crawled their way out of the wreckage. They were severely burned, with 3rd degree burns covering every inch of their bodies. Due to the girls age, she later passed away 3 days later, in the ICU. The headmaster fell into a coma, and it took him 4 years to completely recover, but not without horrid scaring all over his body, after the multiple surgeries and skin grafts he had to go through. When an investigation went on in the wreckage, the detectives found out that someone had sealed all the doors, and windows shut, shutting off what oxygen supply the people would get, and trapping them in the inferno. A body of a small boy was found nearly into ash, his remains were tested to be that of a fire ability user. In the food that was still stored underground, they found traces of poisons and sedatives in the food. The boy that was found to have been a fire wielder was just 3 years old, and had awakened his ability the night before. Though the thought of an accident flew out the window upon the investigation, as they found out that someone had soaked the walls, curtains, clothes, bedsheets, and flooring with gasoline." He finishes reading off, he looks up to the others shocked faces.

"So it was staged, but who could have done that? Could the staff could have done that?" Atsushi asks cautiously.

"I don't think it was the staff that did that, if you look at it this way. What would you do if you were caught in a scandal? Would you take your life or run away?" Dazai asks the tiger back, a hand on his chin.

"I would pack up and run away. Leave everything behind and try to start a new life with a new identity. Go underground and avoid the law like they were the black plague." Atsushi says, looking over to Dazai waiting for the others answer.

"Exactly. Why burn yourself down with other people? What would be the point if the law has all your records, proof against you, and statements from the many that were stationed in that place?" Dazai questions, crossing his arms. He picks up another small slip of paper. "It says here, the headmaster, they won't disclose his name, but were lucky. He lives near the port of Yokohama. We could go over to where he lives and question him about that night. Ever since that night 11 years ago, he's been in hiding, always afraid that 'thing' as he describes it will come back and finish him off. He gave a statement down below several years ago, a day before he was released from the hospital." He puts the other paper down, and picks up the small slip beginning to read.

"That night before I was to be arrested for my crimes in the orphanage, things in the building that night felt weird and wrong. The kids were fed from our underground storeroom, and we were about to send them all off to bed. In 20 minutes we had all the kids in there beds, except for one kid, he was 3 years old, and he was running a fever that night. He didn't have an ability like a few of the other kids in our establishment did, so we had one of the workers up tending to his fever, staying vigilantly by his bedside. I was walking around making sure everything was in order, when the next thing I knew my vision went black, and I woke up to smoke in the air. I was lying on the floor in the middle of the hallway, flames licking the walls, and the curtains on the right side of me burning to ash. The lights weren't on, and the water sprinklers weren't running either, I got up shakily from the smoke inhalation, to try to find a fire extinguisher. Though I found out that all of them have been snatched from their spots. I also found out that all the doors to the kids rooms were jammed shut, they were all screaming for help on the other side of the door, there tiny fists pounding against the wood, but unable to open the doors. All except for one door where I heard the most awful scream in my life, coming from the boys room, where the door was open. When I ran to his room, he was rolling on the floor surrounded and covered in flames. A little girl was on the floor after breaking out from her room, burns covering her hands from pushing the door open by force. I picked her up, and ran to the nearest window, and breaking it open without a second thought. Like a can of bug spray left out in the sun all day, the air entering the building caused the place to explode. We both were covered in flames, our skin melting off our bodies, and chunks of our flesh gone to the explosion. It hurt so bad, I managed to get the flames put out on the two of us. The girl lay unmoving on the ground, but still breathing. I got on my side, tears coming out of my eyes, and beside the doors leading outside of the orphanage a figure stood in a dark hoodie. All I could see in the darkness was crimson red eyes glowing bright, looking straight at me. And a mouth smiling a cruel tone, under the darkness, at me. Whoever it was knew me, and took joy in my suffering, the girls suffering, and the burning alive of all the others in the place. Those eyes haunt me even after these past 4 years, and will forever haunt me. I can't sleep anymore, all I see when I close my eyes at night is those eyes, that smile, and the replaying of that night in my head. A lot of times I've contemplated taking my own life just to escape them, but I know even in death this hell will never end."

Dazai finishes, setting down the paper. "That was his statement to the police."

Atsushi shakes his head "Why didn't they arrest him though?"

"The fire messed up with his mind, so they saw him unfit to stand trial. Instead he was put in a looney bin for 5 years after he was released from the hospital. They released him 2 years ago, and he's been in hiding ever since. Though there are things he didn't tell the police in his statement, things he left out in fear of getting a harsher punishment, and in case the person came back to finish the job. He moved as far away from Austria as he could, and has refused to speak to anyone ever since. The fire messed him up really bad, severe PTSD, and he fears fire even to this day." Dazai looks up to the others, a serious look on his face. "That's why we need to speak to him, and find out what he didn't include in his original statement."

"Does that mean the Austrian Police have all the records from the orphanage?" Akutagawa asks this time.

"Yes they do. A lot of records they won't release even if privately asked. Ango being as high up as he is, and since this case has to do with an ability user, they let him have these records, and statements. They didn't like it, but with a kid that used to be in that orphanage involved with an active case, they really didn't have a choice in the matter." The bandaged man says, putting down the papers. "I have a hankering as to who burned down that orphanage, that night."

"You think it was Beatrix?" Chuuya asks the other from beside him.

Dazai nods his head "Yes. Though the police didn't give how her life was in that orphanage was like before she was adopted. That's another reason we'll have to get the full truth out of this man. Once I figure out how she was treated in that place, with it's records, only then I'll be able to put together a motion of why she did what she did." He stands up his hands in his pockets, collecting all the papers, and putting them back in the envelope. "We should get going before either she gets to him, or he flees this city once more."

The others nod, standing up, ready to go meet with the man that survived that horrible night, and figure out more about Beatrix.


	9. Chapter 9

The man they came to see went by the name Tobias Stiener. Dazai later found out from Ango, the other man telling him he managed to dig up the man's name after searching through the records from the insane asylum from an informant that he knew. Tobias lived in the lower side of the city that was filled with abandoned or run down buildings. People earning low wages, the money they had to scrape from the bottom of the barrel, and most living in the dark under bridges. Trash was strewn everywhere, puddles of what Atsushi assumed was water littered the streets, and people of all ages that the group of 4 passed, were begging for even the smallest sliver of food to feed their children for the night. There clothes tattered, ripped, and hanging very loosely off the frames of their bodies; showing the dark skin layered with grime, and ribs that were like mountains against the plains

The sight of the people, and living conditions tugged at Atsushi's heartstrings, as he knew that what it was like to be starving as these people were. To feel like one wasn't worth the time of the more privileged people in society. Sure he was in an orphanage, and not on the streets for most of his life, but he knew what it was like to feel like there was nothing left for oneself, like the world had just given up, and had moved on. Atsushi sees a certain shine come across Akutagawa's face as well, the other man would know more about this sort of life, as he had to live it when he was a kid with Gin. Akutagawa a few months after they had became the official new double black, had started to open up more with Atsushi. He told him about his horrible life out on the streets, how it was like fighting a never ending war every second of the day.

How hard it was to steal food from the various stalls that were nearby, to getting caught by the shop owners who cursed and called them all kinds of nasty names. Hitting them with broomsticks or worse, threatening to kill them, and saying that scum like them should just die, for it would be better for the honest man. Nobody ever stopped to think about how the kids felt, how hard it was to live in the heat or the cold, not knowing when or if there next meal was coming from. Nobody ever stopped to actually think or ask how the kids felt in a situation like that, how they came to be in a situation like that.

Atsushi wouldn't wish that kind of life on anyone, especially children. He wishes he could do something for the ones he sees right now, looking up at him with pleading eyes, grime covering most of the skin on there bodies, and so frail that they may blow away in the wind if one blew on them. Dazai is up ahead along with Chuuya, looking out for the location of the man's apartment number. He can see them talking amongst each other, but being so far behind he can't hear what there saying. Atsushi could see why this Tobias man was hiding in a place like this, with the state it was, nobody would assume that anyone would live long enough or have enough money to survive on. Though Atsushi had a hinkering that this Beatrix girl could track him down fairly easy, that's if she was the one to actually start the orphanage fire all those years ago.

Most of the time Dazai was always one step ahead from the enemies, so if Dazai thought that this Beatrix girl did it, than that's what the tiger should believe as well. If it really was her, why did she do it? What kind of things went on in that orphanage that made her do something so horrible? He wonders if she regrets doing what she did, or if her heart was made of ice. His mind goes to this man, of what kind of damage this man was dealt, how much trauma he went through or are still going through. Where was Beatrix now, and why did the murders come to a halt after the couple was murdered yesterday? There were all kinds of questions that needed answers, but those answers still weren't provided as of yet.

They've been walking for close to an hour, passing by a multitude of people, before Dazai stops beside some stairs that looked like if one put just a little bit of weight on them, they would collapse in on themselves. Rust covered every inch of the railing, and some parts of it seemed to have sharp things sticking out of it. He was wary of the stairs as he turns to Dazai, a sweatdrop forming on his head.

"Is this the place Dazai-san?" Atsushi asks warily, jumping a little as Dazai taps the stairs.

The bandaged man nods "Yep! Its says to go up these stairs to the floor above, and at the very end of the hallway on the left is the apartment of one Tobias Stiener."

A ragged 30ish year old woman that was starting a barrel fire close to the four looks up at that name. Her eyes shining an unknown emotion. Atsushi couldn't really tell her hair color as it was covered in grime as well. "Oh you mean Dave?"

Dazai looks at the woman confused, he raises an eyebrow "Dave? Is that the name of that tenant?"

The woman nods her head "Yes sir. He moved in about 3 months ago. He said his name was Dave, said he didn't have a last name. Though I thought it was strange with his name being Dave with such a foriegn accent he had. Nobody asks questions around here though, so we don't know very much about him."

"Tell me. How often does he come out of his apartment? What did he look like miss?" Dazai pushes the woman lightly for more information.

The woman puts on a hand on her chin in thought "Let's see here. When he first came looking for a place to live, he approached the landlord of these apartment buildings, and said that he needed a place to live for some time, he didn't care how run down it was, he only wanted a roof over his head. The landlord gave him this apartment above, for a low rent of course." She continues putting what looks like sticks into the barrel, rubbing her hands together. "I couldn't really tell what he looked like, but he was a twitchy fella. Always paranoid about every little noise, though I did see some of his face one time only. It looked like someone had dumped lighter fluid onto his skin, and let him burn for a good amount of time. Most of his body was covered up with thick layers of clothing, and he never let anyone see much of his face. Ever since he moved here, he's only been seen once outside. He has his groceries delivered to his apartment every week, otherwise he never opens the door for anyone else. Even the landlord when demanding his rent up front every 2 weeks, gets told to go back downstairs, wait a couple of minutes, and then to come back up. He complies with it, and the exact amount of money for rent is always sitting there in front of the door."

"Rent every 2 weeks? Isn't that corruption?" Atsushi asks knowing rent is made monthly.

"Everything on these streets are corrupt, though being low income people as we are, the government won't do anything about it. We have nowhere else to go, and were lucky that the landlord charges so little for rent, to have a place to sleep at night even if it isn't the best place to be in the world. He may play a corrupt game, but in the end if we want to continue living here, we'll comply with his rules." The woman answers back, a smile coming over her face.

Atsushi just nods not really knowing what to say. "Does he stay home all day long?" Dazai asks the woman once more.

She nods "Yes. He never leaves that apartment. He has the windows covered, he's like a vampire." She then taps her chin as a thought comes to her head "Oh one more thing, if your looking to talk to him, you best do it rather quickly, for I heard from the landlord that he's moving out in a week."

Dazai perks up at that "Oh he is isn't he? Where is he planning on going now?"

"I don't know. It's weird sir, ever since these heartstring murders started occurring a few weeks back, that mans gotten even more paranoid. He won't even let him grocery man into the apartment anymore. He just tells him through the door in a barely legible tone to leave them by the door." The woman says lowly, tugging the thin shawl like cloth around her shoulders closer to herself with a shudder. "In fact the grocery man is going to bring him his groceries to him within a few hours from now. I bid you good luck trying to get him to open the door sir." She says with a bow, turning and walking off, holding something in her hands.

Dazai shares a look with Chuuya, and says in a near serious tone. "Try not to damage the door to much." He turns to Atsushi and Akutagawa "Let's go you two. Akutagawa we'll need you to restrain this man if he tries to run. He's going to talk, whether he wants to or not." As he turns around shoving the paper in his trench coat pocket and walking up the steps of the creaky stairs. Reluctantly Atsushi has no choice but to comply and follow his mentor up those stairs he fears so much. It doesn't take much time to get to the door of Tobias, Dazai stops in front of the door and knocks 3 times. For a few minutes nothing is heard until he hears a shuffle from the other side of the door, trembling voice asking in a low tone.

"Y-yes who i-is it?" A german accent asks from the otherside of the door.

Dazai clears his throat "We're here to talk to you about a private matter."

"No! Go away!" the voice on the other end yells out, clearly scared.

"We need to speak with you Tobias. We know who you really are, so unless you don't want us to speak through this door and have the whole block know what sins you've committed. I would think it wise to open this door right now." Dazai says in a threatening manner, though he said it in such a carefree way.

That seems to have done it, as the sound of a lock clicking is heard, and a few seconds later the door slides open into a dark room. A hooded face comes into view, although Atsushi couldn't see the mans whole face, though he could see the lower half of the man's face with the light from outside peeking a thin line into the dark apartment. The mans face was marred with horrendous scars that criss crossed each other, his face looking like the craters of the moon, the skin marred red, and purple, with a few black spots at random spots. The skin of the lower half of his face looking like the wrinkled skin of the elderly. He could clearly see where the skin graft surgeries had taken place, the damage to the nerves under the skin showed in the rays of the sunlight. If he looked like that on his lower face, his whole body must resemble the same thing.

"Come in." Tobias mutters out lowly. He disappears behind the door as Dazai motions for them to come into the apartment, once inside the door closes, enveloping the room in darkness once more. Dazai reaches out to turn on the light when the voice of the scarred man mutters out once more, "There's electricity in this apartment, but I've cut the lines turning on the overhead lights."

"Is it perhaps because of your appearance?" The bandaged man asks the man.

A sucked in breath is heard as the man answers lowly, clearly in shock by the tone of his voice. "How did you know about my appearance?"

"We have a report from the orphanage and the fire from 12 years ago. Do you have any seating so we can discuss what needs to be discussed?" Dazai asks him, waiting for the others answer.

"Yes." Is heard as a flashlight comes on, and shines to the couches right beside them in the living room. "Right there, sit down."

They take that opportunity to sit, as a flashlight is tossed there way. Akutagawa catches it with his ability and hands it off to Chuuya. "Do you have any candles perhaps?" Dazai asks, though Atsushi thought a question like that to harsh considering what the man has been through.

"No candles! They require that horrible red flame, and I refuse to use that burning stuff even if I freeze to death!" Tobias yells out in the same low tone, like he's afraid of raising his voice any higher, in fear that he'll be heard across the city.

"Really? How do you heat your food?" Dazai didn't know how to quit even with Chuuya nudging the other in the side, quietly telling him to cut it out.

"I don't. I eat it how it is." Tobias answers from the darkness in front of them. "I can live off of cold food, even if it's canned soups or dog food. I refuse to feel that heat that burned me all those years ago."

"Interesting. Now we need you to tell us what you didn't include in your statement to the police." The bandaged man continues, some kind of thrill in his tone.

"I told all I'm going to say on that matter. I don't want to keep remembering it, it haunts me 24/7, and I want it all to end." By the tone of the man, he sounds like he's getting more and more shrill in his words. The terror is clear as day in his words.

"Just kill yourself then if you want it all to end." Is what the man get shoved back in his face. "After all I'm sure you deserved it if Beatrix burned down that orphanage to that extent. That was crime full of rage, full of hate. She wanted to get a message across, and I'm sure it was directed at you if she hasn't killed you yet."

"Hey that's going to far shithead!" Chuuya yells out, going to grab the front of Dazai's shirt, when the flashlight comes on landing between the two facing the back of the couch. Chuuya stops short when he sees those rare haunted eyes that the bandaged man used to carry when in the port mafia. "Even if he did all that shit, he shouldn't be told to just off himself. It hasn't been proven that this Beatrix girl even committed that crime."

"No he's right. It would be better if I just killed myself." Tobias says brokenly, the flashlight comes back on, on his end. As he lays it on the coffee table in front of him and disrobing himself. True to what Atsushi suspected the rest of his body, arms, chest, back, neck, all of it looked exactly like the lower half of his face, if not worse. His eyes has a milky layer in them, as Tobias has a miserable look on his face.

"Are you blind?" Atsushi asks in shock.

"For the most part yes. The fire damaged my eyes, although I can see dark shapes, and blobs. I don't want people to see my body, so every place I move to I either cut the wires to the light switches or keep the lights off all the time I'm there." A choked sob comes through his lips "I've contemplated taking my own life several times, but I've never had the guts to actually go through with it. Those memories, that smile they follow me even in my dreams. I'm sure I've come to the conclusion that if I die that they'll just haunt me in the afterlife. I regret everything..."

Dazai leans forward "Tell me everything then. What do you regret? What did you do to Beatrix in that orphanage?"

Tobias takes a deep breath as he shuts off the light. "She was dropped off at the orphanage not long after she was born, her parents didn't want her. They showed a deep hatred for the girl, and soon for whatever reason being the bitter man I was back then, the hate flowed through to me and the staff. When she turned a year old the kids started bullying her as well, there wasn't one kid in that place that didn't like her. Soon it was revealed in a test that she was an ability user, and that only made my hatred for her dig further down."

"What's wrong with ability users? Why do you hate them that bad?" Dazai asks in a to sweet of a voice.

"One killed my parents right in front of me when I was 6 years old, and I've hated them ever since that time. So I decided to make any ability users life hell, to make up for my own parents death." His mutters out. "I shouldn't have let that anger cloud my judgement though, I should have treated her fairly. I should have stopped the abuse I let happen in that orphanage, my superiority complex I had back then wouldn't let that happen, I thought that I was invincible. That I could judge others, and do as I pleased to other orphaned kids, to make them as miserable as possible. Even more so with ability user kids that came through the place."

He goes on to list the list of things that he and the other staff members did to the kids. Things that Atsushi went through and worse. Things that he thought could only happen in fairy tales, but they happened in real life. By the time the man was finished, Atsushi was thoroughly disgusted with him.

"I see. That's why she did it." The bandaged man says, like he just figured out an impossible question. "Who was the girl that you got out with you? Was she part of Beatrix's torment?"

"Her name was Lea Wagner. She wasn't born in Austria, she actually came from the states. Her parents took a trip to Austria, but later died in a car accident, and she was put under our care. When she died she was 9 years old, she was the kid that tormented Beatrix the most, agging the other kids to go with the charade. She was in the process of gaining a foster family when the fire occurred, and that devastated the foster family. She had burns equal to mine, but due to her being so young, her body couldn't handle the stress." A sigh came from his lips "When I woke up from my coma several months later and learned of her demise, I was relieved. I know that may sound harsh, but I was happy that she didn't live through it. She wouldn't have lived the same life as she did before if she did live through it. You see how I am, I imagine her life would be the same if not worse."

"Have you heard of the heartstring murders?" Chuuya asks this time, done with being silent, yet seething on the inside, no longer feeling sorry for this sorry excuse for a human being.

"Yes. I know it's her that's doing it. That's why I'm afraid of letting anyone in, and staying silent. I'm going to move as soon as possible, before she knows I'm he..!" He rambles on in a hurried mess, like some nervous yet scared child explaining to his parents that something was wrong.

Dazai cuts him off as he said in a low but clear tone, that spoke business. "It's wouldn't matter."

"What?" Tobias mutters out, fearful of what words will come flooding out next.

"It wouldn't matter. She has known where you were for weeks now." The growing dread fills the room. "In fact she's known where you were the moment you stepped out of that insane asylum. Have you ever sat awake at night, and wondered why she hasn't killed you yet?"

"It's simple, she hasn't ever known where I'm at. I only stay at a place for a short time, and move so she can't catch my tracks!" The man wails out.

"What you don't get is that she has known where you were for years now!" The bandaged man yells out more firm. "She's known but she's doing what I would have done."

"And what's that, huh?" Tobias asks smartly, anger getting to him.

"Sometimes when your target or tormentor in this case survives a vicious attack, it's better to keep them alive and watch them destroy themselves from the inside out over time. Keep watch over them at all times, and when it looks like there about to say something that'll blow their cover, your as good as dead. She could be watching you right now, watching us right now. Even hiding in the darkness of this apartment, eating cold dog food like some scavenging rat, she will always know where you are." Dazai snorts out a small bout of laughter. "For she loves watching the man that made her life a living hell, suffer even after all these years over that fire. If you had died that night, you would've been free from that torment. One day she'll kill you, but as long as she can get you to suffer at her hand like this, she'll always be top dog over you. She permanently ruined the rest of your life both mentally and physically, without ever having to even lay a hand on your head."

A cry bubbles it's way up the man's throat "Why burn everyone else in that fire? The younger kids that were there didn't even know that she had even existed."

"To make examples out of them, to make your suffering worse. She knew that fact, yet she took them out as well. She knew you would blame the kids deaths on yourself, and have nightmares about it. In her mind every single one of you that resided in the orphanage deserved the same punishment, and that was to burn to death. So she snuck into the orphanage, took out the things that could stop the fire, and staged it all out to the final details. She used the kid that was sick that night as a match." Dazai says cruelly, knowing his words were hitting the man home.

"How though? He wasn't an ability user! He was normal unlike h..!"

Once more the scarred man is cut off by Dazai. "No he was an ability user. He had a fire ability. Though with the symptoms he had that night, it wouldn't have been possible for his ability to just combust like that. An ability peeking at the age of 3 years old, it takes time for it to reach its full peak, a few weeks to a month after symptoms appear like they did with that boy. Though she found a way to kick start that fire ability where it would peak that very night, I imagine she used her own ability on him. His heart going into overdrive like it did, would cause a reaction in the body, and force the ability out. She soaked him and his room with the most lighter fluid and went outside to enact her revenge."

"He...I…" The scarred man tries to pick up his words, but they just turn to sand and crumble through his fingers.

"You knew that kid was an ability user, but you just didn't want to believe it. You were arrogant back then, and you, the staff were forced to look over him because you knew if he died, you would have never seen the light of day in prison ever again. You knew what would happen to you if your were to be sent to prison, and what would happen if the other prisoners were to catch wind of your crimes against those kids!" Dazai shouts out, anger seeping into his tone, though he wasn't shouting loudly. Dazai stands then as he turns on the flashlight shining it to the others. "Let's go. We got all the info we need from him." The others nod as Dazai mutters out a low "Let's let him suffer a bit longer."

The four leave letting the door close behind them with a slam.

* * *

Tobias hurried to his room feeling around the apartment layout as he hurries to his bedroom. He doesn't want to believe that she knew where he was all this time, it was just ridiculous. Nobody could know that, and this man he didn't even know the name of yelled at him for a number of reasons. He makes it to the bedroom, feeling around for his suitcase in a hurried mess thinking 'I've got to get out of this place! Now, before she finds me!' There is sweat on his back as he collapses after he finally finds his suitcase, only to freeze when he feels a hand touch the back of his neck.

The voice is sweet as honey, the russian accent coming through the sound of his wildly beating heart. "Now now calm down there Tobias."

This voice he didn't recognize in all his life. It was a girl he could tell that much, but there was no one in this part of the city that had such an accent. She came from elsewhere, but then again why was she in his apartment?

He swallows a thick wad of saliva. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Me. You don't need to know my name. You just need to concern yourself for your punishment in talking to people that you shouldn't have talked to." The girl purrs out close to his ear. She digs her fingernails into his neck "We've been listening this whole time, here in your apartment. Beatrix was even in the hallway you passed to get here, yet you just passed her as if she was never even there."

'Beatrix is here?!' He thinks in a panic. His eyes bulging in his skull in pure panic. 'I can't scream, I can't call for help. I'm outnumbered and near blind, especially in this darkness.' A fat roll of sweat falls down his cheek, the tickle of it not even registering in his mind.

A hand is put on his head seconds afterwards, as a small giggle of joy registers into his brain. That was Beatrix in front of him, he never even heard her footsteps come up behind him where his bedroom door was located.

"You've done a no-no headmaster." Beatrix says lowly. There is a chink of metal as not a few seconds later he feels the cold of metal touch his skin that makes him jump in surprise. "So you do have some feeling left in the ugly mug of yours." The metal is dragged down his face a little more "That's good. I was hoping and praying that you had some feeling left in that body of yours, for it'll make what I'm about to do to you even more of a joyful time!"

"Please….I'll stay quiet. Just leave me be…" he cries out, hoping that she'll show him some mercy as he crumples to his bedroom floor, shaking in absolute fear.

"Now that's just not possible. You see I've been watching you for years now. I can't just up and kill you yet, you've got to suffer a whole bunch more before I'm done with you." She puts a hand on his jaw "You see I got to shut you up for speaking out like that, monsters like you doesn't deserve to be shown sympathy nor compassion. I was going to leave it be but now that you've spoken with that man, I see what must be done now."

His mouth is forced open then by two strong hands. Next his tongue his nearly ripped out of his mouth. He hears her giggling as the cold blade of something sharp is put to his tongue. He can taste rust, and tries to struggle at that moment. He manages to get the hands off his mouth, by punching one of the intruders, and starts struggling in a direction, his mind in a frenzy.

He doesn't get very far as a hand yanked him by the hair, and threw him to the ground, before he can calculate his next move a sharp kick of a shoe hits him right in the middle of the chest. The breath is knocked out of him as he's once more yanked up and thrown onto the bed, where his two hands are tugged above his head, and bound tightly with electrical wires to the headboard. Someone proceeds to grab is feet and pull them in the opposite direction, as it feels like his limbs are going to be pulled out of there sockets any second now. Before he knows it his feet are tied to the end of the bed by the same wires. So tight that it's cutting the circulation off from his limbs already.

He won't let them win as he locks his jaw closed. Though he doesn't get very far as a hand punches him clear in the throat, the fist nearly punches clear to the skin of the back of his throat. His jaw comes open, trying to breath. It's then a device they use to keep someone's jaw during tonsillitis surgery open, is hooked around his head, forcing his jaws apart. He's breathing heavily through his nose, unable to close his jaws. Finally though everything stops, as Beatrix speaks, anger clear in her tone.

"Now you've done it. I was going to knock you out for this procedure, but since you decided to fight back, we had to take some measures. Now you can't fight back, no matter how much struggling you do, you won't get anywhere in the end. We'll do this procedure without any drugs, be a doll and entertain us won't you?" She says in that sickenly sweet voice. His tongue is grabbed once more but this time something pierces the tip of it, locking it in place. He goes to scream when a big hand, what he presumes is a males hand clamps down on his throat and squeezing lightly at first.

"You know what?" She asks once more, knowing he can't answer. "I was just joking about using the rusted knife at first and using one that would do a clean cut. Now though I'm going to use the rusty one, drag this out longer." She gets in his face, he can feel her breath on his face. "You can't make any noise, and no one is going to come for you, yet." He feels the rusty blade near the base of his tongue as it makes the first non clean cut into his tongue, pain engulfs his world as he tries to scream only for the hand on his throat to completely clamp down cutting off his oxygen supply, and his screams. All he could hear was her maniacal laughing, as she continued with the torture.

* * *

Sirens blare throughout the air as the woman from before comes upon the scene to see the paramedics carrying out Tobais unconscious on a stretcher. He has blood pooling in his mouth and down his cheeks. As a breathing tube is down his bruised throat. For the first time since meeting the man she scream upon seeing his body, covering her mouth at the horror as he's loaded into the back of an ambulance, the neck brace stark white on his neck, but beyond the white sheet covering his body from chest down she could only wonder what happened to him.

She approaches an officer, still horror stricken asking "What happened to him?"


	10. Chapter 10

The officer just shakes his head, a few more officers moving past him to collect evidence from the crime scene. "I can't tell you all the details mam. All we know is that someone called 119 about 10 minute ago. We got the ambulance here as fast as possible." He breaths out a heavy sigh "Can I ask you a few questions mam?"

She shakes her head, pulling her shawl over her shoulders "Yes sir. Anything I can help with."

The man clears his throat, pulling out a pad and paper, ready to write. "Ok first up. Does this man live alone? Did he have any visitors recently, or anyone that comes by his place at times?"

The woman's thoughts go to the four men that went up to the others apartment building. She walked away from that commotion before she could even see if they ever went up to the door. She cleared her own throat, gazing up at the stern yet serious eyes of the officer. "Well not to long ago, I would say less than an hour ago, there were these four men that stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading up to his apartment building. They said that they needed to discuss something very important with him, and they asked me about him, so I told them. I needed to go at that moment to get something to eat from the soup kitchen nearby, and I left them." She shakes her head still in a mild form of shock, "I just came back from that place to this situation. His name is Tobias Steiner, and he's in his middle aged years, I don't exactly know how old he is."

The officer nodded his head, being sure not to leave out any details pertained to him. He keeps writing down everything from what she explained to the four men from before. At the end he closes the notepad and puts it in his shirt pocket, nodding his head once more. "Thanks for the help mam. Did you happen to remember what these four men looked like?"

She nods "Yes I do sir."

"Do you mind coming down to the station with us and explaining all of this to the sketch artist?" He asks her again.

The woman nodded, walking with the officer as he lead her to the cop car. "Thank you mam, this is a big help to us. We'll track down the guy that brings him his groceries when he comes around, and the landlord over the apartment complex. We can't rule out anyone at this point, for we need to look at this case at all angles."

***Small Flashback with Beatrix***

Tobias is choking on his own blood as Beatrix holds up a still wet and bloody tongue. She gets off of him, and gets off the bed. The knife used to do the gruesome crime, still held between her gloved fingers. The headmaster is limp, breath at a fast rate through his nose, as his eyes are bulged out of his skull. She looks at her marvelous work, excited that the man was still alive.

Cracking a smile she speaks "Theo, you can take your hand off his neck. There is no need for that anymore. He can't scream anymore, unless he wants to drown in his own blood. Take that device off of his head while your at it too."

Theo nods his head, and starts with that work. "What do we do about fingerprints?"

Beatrix waved that question off with an eyeroll. "Don't worry about that, I got that covered. Alena went back into the living room to collect the pieces that we need to pull this off." She shrugs happily "Those so called detectives were here, so that's perfect."

Theo quick with work has the device off the man's head, and puts it on the bed covers to pick up later. He turns to the shorter girl "What about the cables?"

"Take them off as well. They've done their damage, so it's not like he can run away now can he?" Beatrix cackles out lowly, she folded her hands watching Theo cut the cords loose instead of cutting them off completely, cutting some of the tightness away. "That's better, turn him over so he doesn't choke on his own blood, and die before the paramedics come over to patch him up." She claps her hands together in glee "I need him to survive and suffer a whole lot more. He can't die yet, I hold his life in my hands, and only I say when he dies." she says in a menacing, yet honey sweet tone.

"You seem a bit too excited for this boss." Theo hums out as he had turned Tobias onto his chest area, his head slightly hanging off the edge of the bed, and crimson droplets dropping down into a slowly expanding pool of red. "Though that was fun I gotta admit, so how do you plan to get out of this one?" the taller man asks, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I got my way. Just like all the other times in the past for covering my tracks." Beatrix says softly with confidence, her eyes meeting with Tobias, that was still conscious, and looking straight at her. She cocks her head to the side, mocking him. "How does it feel to be sitting there injured beyond repair, always in fear for your life? Yet all the company you've got are the ones that put you in that condition." She taps her finger against the side of her face, as she sees his eyes go wide. "That's how I felt all those times you and your crew used to treat me in that orphanage, headmaster. That's how all those kids that I burned down with the building felt, but that doesn't matter now." She gets up from her spot, and makes the small tread to him, she stops just a bit from him. "I'm going to call for help, but just a warning dear." She says holding up a finger as she brings out a burner phone. "If you somehow find a way to communicate with the law, don't you breathe a word of mine, or the others presence here. Do you understand?"

Tobias just nods, close to losing consciousness, the blood loss closing in on him. Just as he loses consciousness he sees her putting the phone to his ear. Beatrix turns as she had watched the older man lose what consciousness he was hanging onto, turning she sees Alena approach her. The other end of the phone picks up with a woman speaking professionally.

"Hello this is 119, what seems to be the problem?"

Beatrix puts on her glamour, handing the phone to Alena. Alena with her accent would make it harder to track, not being from around here. "Um there is an injured man at the apartment buildings on the east end of the city! The apartment buildings are called 'Yoko Apartments', please come here as fast as you can!"

"Hold up mam, is he still breathing?"

"Yes he's still breathing, I don't know his current condition, I'm afraid of touching the body, and I don't know CPR either." She really put on a show for the lady on the other end, her voice sounding pleading and near hysterical. "Please come here, I don't know what to do! He doesn't look to good, he's bleeding from the mouth, and his limbs are tied with electrical wire!"

"Mam, mam please try to remain calm. We've dispatched help and it's currently on the way. Try to stay on the line, and we'll get through this until the ambulance arrives. Listen is the attacker still in the area?"

"I don't know! I'm the friend of his, and he wasn't answering his door, so I got the door open and found him in his bedroom like this! Please come he-" She goes to say when she drops the phone, and stomps on it. Once she had stomped the phone to pieces does the russian girl drop her acting, she turns to gaze over to the other two. "We should go. They aren't that far away." She points to the device on the bed covers boredly "Take that with us, if we leave it behind it will spell trouble for us."

Theo nods grabbing ahold of the device, as the two girls hold onto the man. Just as the police and ambulance sirens roared into the area, do the three disappear out of thin air.

Not 3 minutes later do a group of policemen bust through the door of the man's bedroom. They look around to see a man from the description the dispatcher told them about, laying on the bed, and quickly order for a stretcher. They split up in the place looking around, for another victim, but in the end didn't find anything.

***Back to the Present***

In a small but quaint cafe owned by the Port Mafia, sits the four men chatting while enjoying some coffee. Soukou and the new Soukou on each side of the medium sized booth, listening to the hum of the music in the background, and the other customers ordering or sitting far off on their computer, or with a partner. Atsushi sighs "I can't believe that guy."

"You telling me, doing something like that to kids that young. It's just sickening." Chuuya says behind the rim of his steaming black coffee. "Though I can't blame the girl for going as far as she did." He says casually taking a sip of the cooling liquid. "Even so she shouldn't have brought other innocent children into the mix, if it was me I would have decked the hell out of that guys face instead."

"When I was in the orphanage, I hated the way the other kids treated me, but I didn't hate them enough to wish death upon them." Atsushi says lowly, having opened up about speaking about is his past with the help of Akutagawa. The two of them would sometimes when they didn't feel like going out for tea or to eat, they would eat in one or the others apartment. Then spend the rest of the night talking about past experiences, and about work. Although he still wasn't very comfortable speaking about his experience to other people out in public.

Of course Dazai and Chuuya knew about them, but for the most part kept their mouths shut. After all, neither of them had very good pasts either. Chuuya nods "Yeah me to, though my style of handling the situation was to kick or punch them really hard, and that taught them never to mess with me again." He cuts his eyes over to Dazai that's sitting near the window "Though one of them never learned to leave me the hell alone."

Dazai just turns to him with a really sweet smile, that was both cunning and sly. "Oh you love me chibi!" He doesn't make it very far in reaching out to touch the redheads arm, does said redhead pull away with a scoff.

"What do you mean? I don't love you, I just put up with you all these years." He then points at the bandaged man nearly sloshing hot coffee in his mug out across the table "Don't call me chibi! I'm 22 years old for god's sakes!"

"Sure say that all you want, but I know you by now. We weren't partners for all those years for nothing after all." Dazai teases the other, making Chuuya nearly slosh coffee out once more, as Atsushi squeaks out in surprise.

"Um Chuuya, you nearly hit me with hot coffee." Atsushi speaks up from the window seat across the table. "I would very much like to keep my skin."

"Oh you would have healed from it, don't whine so much about it." The redhead shoots back, nearly making Atsushi deflate into himself at the sass Chuuya brought to the table.

"Wow great way of caring for me." The tiger says lowly. He turns to see his partner sitting at the table reading a book, glasses perched on the top of his nose. This was his way of ignoring Chuuya and Dazai's bickering the two of them knew would happen one way or another, being in the same vicinity as one another. Aku always carried a book around in his coat, in case for situations like this, or for the simple fact that he just liked to sit and read in a quiet setting, like a coffee shop.

He's tried to get Atsushi into reading but had no such luck, for the tiger was never one to read very many books growing up. He was more watching movies, and simple shows like what he gets on that old box TV.

Atsushi sighs into himself as he tries to take a peek at the cover of the book his partner was currently reading. "What are you reading?" he asks the other lowly, but loud enough to be heard over the bickering of the two older men across from the two of them.

Akutagawa cuts his eyes over to the tiger "Something that wouldn't interest a brain like yours jinko." He turns his eyesight back to the book, and turns a page. He then reaches into his pocket to pull out another book, handing it to the tiger gently.

Atsushi looks at the title to see that it was called 'Doctor Sleep', by a man named Steven King. It was a weird name for someone to have, but of course someone from outside of the country would find his name weird all the same. He looks back up to Akutagawa confused yet curious. "What country was this published in?"

Without taking his eyes off of his own book, he answers the tiger. "In the united states of america as they like to call that country over there. That mans a famous author back in the states, and he's written a lot of different books. I found a few online that were translated into japanese, and decided to try them out. That's one of them, check it out if you want to, it's better than listening to those two arguing amongst each other."

"Is that what your reading?" Atsushi asks him once more, running his hands over the smooth surface of the book cover.

Akutagawa nods "No, it's another book I've been meaning to finish for awhile now. I'll read one when I get through with this one here." He glances over to the tiger "Are you going to read that or not?"

Atsushi jumps a bit as he shakes his head "Oh." He looks down to the book, that doesn't look that thick laying in his hands. "Yeah I'll try it tonight when I get home, if I don't like it, I'll text you and hand it back to you whenever." He puts it in his lap afraid of setting it down on the table surface in fear that the coffee Chuuya is holding in his hands still, threatening to slosh all over the place, would get on the book.

Akutagawa nods his head, his focus going back to his book. Atsushi decides to see how far the argument has gotten for the two older men. Chuuya has one hand on Dazai's throat, while the other is holding the still steaming coffee. The redhead has a peeved look across his face, teeth clenched as he's half trying to choke the life out of his bandaged mentor, and half trying not to spill hot coffee all over himself and the table.

"God damn bandaged wasting bastard! I'll choke the hell out of you if it wasn't for this coffee in my hands!" The redhead half yells out, trying not to draw attention to himself. Though as Atsushi glances around the cafe, he sees that his method of half yelling hasn't been successful, as a man choking the hell out of another man doesn't happen in your everyday cafe. The woman behind the counter up front looks so close to just getting on the phone with the police, looking around awkwardly. Though she never reaches for the phone, she must have been new to the cafe, because all the other workers wouldn't even bat an eye to the commotion.

Another worker walks up to her as she points towards there table, and not even a minute later the worker just rolls their eyes, and with a wave of disinterest walks back into the back towards the kitchen. The girl gives one more glance as a customer walks through the doors, and she proceeds to take the persons order in a professional manner.

Atsushi holds up his hands nervously "Um...wouldn't it be better to dump the coffee over his head instead Chuuya-san?"

Like a lightswitch the two older men turn their attention back to the tiger. Both froze for a second before Chuuya smirks, and Dazai has a horrified look on his features. "Good idea tiger boy." He rears the coffee cup closer to Dazai's face, letting the other see the steam still roiling off the top of the dark liquid. "See this bastard, you'll look like a mummy by the time I'm through with you."

"Dazai grabs his own cup, smirking "Two can play that game chibi."

"I'm not a chibi for the last goddamn time!" Chuuya yells at the near top of his lungs. "You put your cup down."

"Not unless you put yours down first." The bandaged man shoots back, the smirk still ever present on his face.

Chuuya's eyes squint for a second before he says lowly "Ok let's put them down at the same time."

"Gotcha." Dazai replies, and ever so slowly both men put their coffee cups down on the table surface. They both take their hands away from the objects, and scoot apart from each other, like the two of them weren't about to just dump coffee, and hot coffee at that all over each other like little kids.

Suddenly Chuuya turns his eyesight towards the tiger, making the poor boy flinch in surprise "Why did you suggest something idiotic?"

It's Atsushi's turn to give the other a smirk "Just for shits and giggles." A scowl comes across the redheads face at that statement, starting to crack his fists in growing rage.

"You little shit, you thought that would be funny? How would you like a good swift punch in the face!" Chuuya yells out, pointing at the tiger.

"I would heal from it obviously." Atsushi says mocking the other, all the same as getting back at the shorter man for his remark earlier. "As for your question. Yes it would have been hilarious, after all you would have healed from that too."

"Aw yeah you want me to ruin that book on your lap from this coffee of mine!" The shorter man yells out drawing even more attention to himself. The anger in his voice rising as the seconds tick by.

"Please don't. This book isn't even mine, it's Ryu's. He'll kill me if it gets ruined." Atsushi says putting his hands into the air.

"I will kill him." Ryu says from beside him, flipping a page of his book, like he wasn't secretly listening in on the conversation. "I'll kill anyone that ruins a book of mine that I paid for out of my own pocket as well."

That just gets a huff from Chuuya, as he sets back down in his seat. Atsushi decides to back off, for now at least. "Never knew you were into reading books kid?" Chuuya asks from across the table, propping his chin on the palm of his gloved hand.

"Oh well I'm not, but since Ryu keeps wanting me to try to get into reading, I'll try." Atsushi shrugs his shoulders "Who knows maybe one day that connection will click. Maybe I'll find something that I like to read."

"Well I have a lot of books back in my apartment that you could try to read my little protege." Dazai coos out from the window seat, pulling out his book of suicide from that long light brown trench coat.

An elbow is shoved into the suicidal man's side harshly "Like hell he'll be reading those things! Only a maniac does, like you." Chuuya tells Dazai.

A teasing laugh escapes the suicidal man's lips "Come now hatrat. This book has tons of educational facts!"

"Educational my ass." Chuuya scoffs with a roll of his eye. "A pointless kids book has more educational facts than those books of yours ever will in a million years." He then checks his watch "I should be going soon, I have a meeting in a couple hours with sister."

Atsushi perks up as the clack of a book being closed gets his attention. He turns to see Ryu preparing to leave. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going back to my apartment to enjoy a brew of my favorite tea." He stands up from the booth, but not before cutting his eyes over to the tiger, hands in his pocket. "You have a day off today, so come on your coming with me." Atsushi nods his head, standing up to follow Ryu out of the coffee shop.

Chuuya waves them off with a goodbye. "Don't worry about the bill, I'll take care of it this time." The new double black pair nods, and walks towards the entrance of the cafe.

"Thanks for taking care of the bill short stack!" Dazai coos out, going to leave when a hand shoots out grabbing the back of his collar. He turns his head to see Chuuya scowling at him.

"Who said I was going to pay for your shitty coffee bandaged waster?" The redhead resorts.

"Um let me think…." Dazai says pretending to be in thought. He then points at Chuuya with stars in his eyes. "You said you would! You said not to worry about the bill, and that you would take care of it! That means that you meant, you were going to pay for mine too."

Chuuya stops to think for a minute, processing those words. When a realization hits his brain like a bus. '_Shit! I did say that.' _He looks Dazai straight in the eye, annoyance over the man and his antics overwhelming in his chest. '_I did say those exact words! He'll never leave me alone until I do as I said I would. Fine! Fine, pay for him just this once, or else I'll be late for my meeting.' _He lets go of Dazai, and just turns around to go to the front desk, pulling out his wallet. The new double black pair already long gone out of sight. He pays for the products, and heads to the door ignoring Dazai's questions of 'What am I supposed to do now?'.

To which all chuuya had to say to that was, "Figure it out yourself, I don't care either way." as he walks out of the cafe and down the street.

***A few hours later in the Police Station***

The woman sits in an interrogation room, across from an investigator. They had already had her give a run through of what the four men that were seen earlier that day come to Tobias's apartment, to the sketch artist, and the photo's fixing to be sent out. She twiddles her thumbs together, biting her lip nervously, as she sits at the table patiently. The investigator holds out his olden, wrinkled hands, and shakes her own. He pushes his big rimmed glasses up his nose as he looks through the 2nd statement she had given earlier, immediately after the sketch artist. His blue eyes looking straight at her, and white short hair standing stiff on the top of his head.

"Well you're almost ready to be let go for the evening Miss…." He stops, scratching his head trying to recall what her name was once more.

"Akiyama Juki." She says with a small bow.

"Well miss Juki could you tell me a little bit about yourself? I know you told them a little bit before all of this, but if I'm going to have you for a witness, I want to get to know about you. Just you and me in this interview room." The man says as his badge reads out 'Hagiwara Daiki', and he was a senior investigator in his field. "First off where were you born? How old you are? You know the basics." He says pulling out a pad.

Juki clears her throat lightly as she folded her hands in her lap, and starts to say "I was born in Kobe, Japan. My family still lives there but I decided to go out into the world and explore my options, when I was 18 years old. This year I turned 31 years old, so it's been a good 13 years since I last had contact with my family. I tried going to college at the age of 18 for a little bit, but due to financial issues, I was forced to quit school at 20 years of age. I got a part time job making my ends meet, living in a shabby apartment, and trying to make another day." She wipes a few lone tears from the corner of her eyes at her past hardships, that still follow her to this day.

"Were you living here in Yokohama at that time?" Daiki asks lowly, his eyes soft.

She shakes her head "No. I was living in Hamamatsu between the ages of 18 to 22 years of age. I wasn't doing good in the city, and I then heard people say that there was opportunity to be found in Yokohama. That's what I did, after I quit school, I saved up as much money as I could possibly save up. For 3 years I worked my butt off with 3 different jobs so I could make the move and start fresh in Yokohama."

"Who did you hear that from?" The investigator asks a bit astonished by her answer.

Juki looks up from her lap, having to think for a minute. "I heard it from this boy back in Hamamatsu, he had short black hair, pale skin, and he liked to wear black clothing. He wasn't very sociable either, but he was sweet. He was on the same train as me on my way to my next shift at another job, he was with a young girl. They didn't look related so I summed it up as the two of them being friends." She then thinks of something as she looks the man straight in the eye. "It was weird those two children, it was like they didn't belong in that setting. The girl I could tell wasn't even from this country, she had this german accent."

"German accent?" Daiki raises an eyebrow. "We don't get very many german tourists in this country." He turns back to the woman "What about the boy?"

"He sounded Japanese. His eyes were red like the devil's eyes, and the girl she never took her gloves off even after spilling some of her drink all over them. A normal person would have slipped the gloves off, and tried to dry their hands off, but not her. It was then when my eyes connected to hers, and a chill ran down my spine. It was like looking into the eyes of a killer, but never in my dreams would I have imagined an innocent child's eyes giving off such a vibe before." She says with a shake of her head, the memory still fresh in her brain.

"If I remember correctly, there's an underground crime ring in and around the city of Hamamatsu. My mentor that retired about 8 years ago, told me about it. He said that when he investigated it, the gang mostly consisted of kids. That he didn't get very far into his investigation before he had to bail out of there before they killed him." Daiki explains, his hands slightly slack. "Were any of those two children wearing something with this symbol on it?" he asks, sliding her a photo across the table.

Her eyes go wide in shock as she sees a symbol of a Bleeding Heart, with a beautifully crafted knife sticking out of the heart. The ink black, but it was the exact same symbol she saw that day. "Yes that's it." she murmurs lowly. "They had it around their necks, either tattooed or hanging from a necklace. The two children both had necklaces of the symbol, I had no idea what any of that meant back in the day, but now that I know what that symbol means, I'm in total shock." She shakes her head some more in disbelief "Is there a special symbol or color for the leader of the gang?"

"Not that we know of. The entire time my mentor was undercover in Hamamatsu, he never once heard any of the members mention their leaders name, age, gender, location, nothing about them. Why do you ask?" Daiki asks her interested.

"The girls necklace. Her necklace had the same symbol, but it was the color of red & silver. She looked to be around….her early teens, maybe younger, but she was still a kid. The boys necklace was black like in the photo. When your mentor was there, was this the color of every single members, symbols?" The womans says seriously, pointing at the photo.

Daiki shakes his head "Yes it was. None of them had a red & silver symbol." He is quick to write that information down, "I need to run this all down with my ex-mentor once this meeting is over, don't worry I won't reveal your personal history, is that ok with you?"

"Yes anything to help you with this case." She answers honestly.

"Now one more question, before we cut this short for the day." He says holding up a finger. "After this we'll let you go and call you when we need you to come in again, and answers our questions on this matter." He turns to a new page of the pad "Can you come in tomorrow and give a sketch of this girl and the boy?"

Juki clears her throat "Yes sir. Do you need anymore information of my life?"

"Not at the moment, those we'll be asked at another time. Preferably whenever you come to give a sketch of the two children." He finishes writing down all the information as he tucks both in his short pocket and stands up stiffly. "That will be all for today. Go home and relax, and I'll be calling my ex-mentor up for a meeting in the next hour."

She picks up her shawl, and walks out of the room. "Thank you, I'm happy to help anytime. Can you keep me updated on Tobias's condition?"

"Yes Miss Juki." He turns to walk out of the room himself, and with a wave of his hand he says "Good day to you."

She nods, and in a span of a few minutes shes walking out of the police station, and down the street. She hugs the shawl around her shoulders tightly, the cold wind biting her skin. People cut their eyes towards her dirtied figure, some holding looks of disgust, while others held sympathy for her. For a lot of people she couldn't stand the stares of the many groups of people, from wealthy to poor, that held mixed feelings on their faces. Juki turns her head away from them cutting across into a darkened alleyway.

She goes around multiple corners and curves that she knows by heart after living on the streets long enough to have a few tricks up her sleeve. She's not that far from the apartments, when she hears low whistling from an unknown melody, sounding seemingly from behind her being. She stops short when she hears it coming closer, crinkling her brow she looks around fully alert. '_What is that melody? I know I've heard it somewhere before, but I can't remember where.' _She thinks, the winds picking up around her.

Her heart picks up it's wild beating when she feels the breath of someone in front of her, and that's all she needs to pull away and run as fast as her legs will take her towards the direction of her apartment. She hears footsteps behind her, following with just as quick of a pace, her heart is beating out of her chest, it feels like as she continues to run down the soiled alleyways. She didn't see anyone in front of her when she felt that breath, there had to be someone there. '_There had to be! I felt it, I really did! I'm not crazy!' _She thought crazily, as she finally breaks out of the one alleyway leading straight towards her apartment building.

Juki almost runs into a wall on the opposite end, but stops herself when one of the other residents catch her in his arms. She's breathing hard as he asks her if she's alright, but she just pushes past him, heading straight towards her apartment building, ignoring the cries from the man behind her asking her if she was alright, or to stop.

After another minute she stops, leaning heavily against the wall of the alleyway filled with other people of all ages, as she gazes around the place, for anyone she didn't know or to be out of place. Though she never sees anyone, when a hand on her shoulders makes her snap around towards the person. It ends up being an elderly gentleman that was in his 80's. A man that she knew quite well, he's leaning against his rickety cane, concern swimming in his eyes.

"Juki are you alright? I was calling your name but you didn't seem to hear me." The old man asks kindly, wiping a bit of blood he had coughed up from the edge of his lips.

Juki is still in shock and fear striking every one of her nerves, looking around for anyone suspicious. She shoots her head back up to look at the old man in the eye, teeth nearly clenched tightly. "Someone was chasing me."

"Chasing you?" The old man does a quick do around the alleyway before focusing back onto the woman before him. "Are you sure it wasn't one of the kids pranking you?"

"I'm sure!" Juki says near hysterically, clenching her fingers together nervously. "There were no kids in front of me when I felt the breath of someone on my cheeks!" She continues to look around crazily, paranoid over the slightest sound "Someone was whistling a tune in the alleyway, a bit before this one."

"Juki the kids whistle all the time, I'm sure it's nothing." The old man says soothingly, putting a light hand on her shoulder, mostly for comfort. "Just go home and rest, you look like you really need it." He takes out a crumpled piece of paper and starts coughing into his fist lightly.

Juki cuts her eyes at the paper, seeing crimson blossom from parts of the parchment. The older man couldn't afford tissues, so he used whatever he could find to collect the blood he had coughed up. It looked like a missing kids poster that he was using, as she tries to see what kid was missing. "Hey, where did you get that poster from?" She asked him gently.

He stops coughing, his breathing slightly wonky. He looks at the now soiled paper in his hands. "Oh this." He cuts his eyes up to her "Someone stapled a lot of them up not to far from here actually, figured there was enough up on that post, so I took one for my coughing fits. I can show you where they are if you want."

She nods not really feeling like being alone after that horrifying experience. Pulling the shawl closer around her shoulders, she motions for him to walk, and starts following him from behind. It doesn't take no more than 5 minutes to get to the location of the posters. The older man was right, the whole light post was covered in those missing child posters, from top to bottom. The kid that had disappeared was at most 5 years old, he had dark hair, with tan features. It said that he had disappeared a week prior, after he went outside to stand at the bus station for school. He never made it to the bus station, that was only a quarter of a mile down from his parents house. There have been no leads so far, but the parents are giving out a reward of 200 thousand dollars for their son's safe return.

Juki felt bad for the parents, though with a reward that high, the kid must have came from a wealthy family. Money like that would be nice, but she would never get anywhere with a case like this. Most likely it was a predator, human trafficker, or someone that knew the kid that would have taken him. With how much time that had passed already, the kid was either dead, or sold off to someone else. She knew that type of trade, back in Hamamatsu kids disappeared all the time. In the underground, it was hard to track anybody, even then by the time the gangs, and traffickers caught wind of someone following their tracks, they would kill the kids, and run further underground. In very rare times only one or two kids had gotten away from their captures, but not without some life changing effects.

Tomorrow she would ask Daiki about this kid, and try to see what she could do to find out all she could about it. With the heartstring murders going on the past few weeks, this kids disappearance could be connected, or it couldn't. It all depended on the facts, evidence so far, and a lot of other factors. Money like that would be really nice to have, and she was willing to get even a small sliver of it. Sure she wasn't an ability user, but she could put in her work as a normal citizen. She turns to the old man after taking a poster for herself. "Let's go. I really need some sleep."

The old man nods as they start walking together back to the alleyway of cramped apartments. "Hey Lin. Do you mind if I stay over at your place tonight? I know you and a few others have a card game tonight."

Lin that was the old man nods, smiling at her kindly. "I don't mind. You help me all the time, so I'll help you anytime you want." He turns his head with a small chuckle "I know we get baths far and few between, but you look like you need one more than me Juki. I have enough water that you can take a semi warm bath back in my apartment."

Juki holds up her hands "No you don't need to do that Jin! I can wait until I can scrape up enough money to pay for my water bill, I've waited longer."

Jin waves his hand lightly in front of him "No I insist. A lady like you is at the prime of your life. Me an old man in his late 80's is at the end of my rope. If I can help you get back on your feet than that will be my life mission until the day I take my last breath. You take that bath, you deserve it."

Juki is almost in tears "Thank you so much Jin! I'll repay you for this kind gesture. How about I prepare you a meal tonight?"

Jin waves his hand around "You don't need to repay me, but if you insist, then the two of us can just enjoy our company together." The two continue to talk down below, heading towards Jin's apartment.

***With Beatrix***

Beatrix's hair whips in the wind, as she looks down at the alleyway where the missing kid poster's sit. Her eyes cut into slits, she hears footsteps behind her. Without turning around she knows who it is. "Did you get any information from the woman?"

"Yes. She picked up one of the posters, which indicates that she's going to look into the case. Should I kill her tonight?" Alena asks from behind her, hands by her side awaiting her orders.

"No. Wait on those orders for now. We need her alive right now for the plan to work. It would just look plain suspicious if she were to die hours after Tobias was attacked." Beatrix says with a small smirk, and a wave of her hand.

"But Beatrix!" Alena goes to shout out, when said girl holds up her hand.

""Be patient. She'll die eventually, as will the old man. The old man due to health issues, he looks like he only has a short time to live after all, coughing up blood as he is right now." She says with a shrug like she's talking about the weather. "I've seen that happen one to many times in the past. I'd say he'll be dead in a few days from now. As for the woman we'll let some things slide for now, who knows what she's talking to those policemen about, that's why I'm giving you another assignment."

Alena is all ears as she asks "What orders are those?"

"Get in contact with Gene. Give him these orders over the phone." Beatrix relays handing over a small sheet of paper to the Russian girl. "Remember to use the coded language we use and a burner phone. Take Theo with you, you'll need him."

Alena nods bowing "Yes mam." She folds the paper up and puts in her pocket. "I'll be going, if you need anything just call us." She walks towards Theo, and both of their images are whisked away into the winds. Beatrix looks back to where the russian girl was standing previously just a few seconds ago.

"Don't worry I won't need any." She mutters out lowly, her red eyes shining in the light, and a wicked vicious grin on her face.


	11. Chapter 11

Light filters through the office windows of the agency, phone calls filter through the air, and the chattering of the office buzz is heard. Atsushi comes in through the door of the agency, urgency in his steps after he received a phone call from Dazai to come to the office as soon as possible. The day before, after he and Aku left the coffee shop the two stayed at the other's highly expensive apartment watching movies and cooking dinner. Atsushi left around 10 at night, with Akutagawa escorting him home, wanting to talk some more about the assignment, and sorts. Atsushi arrives at the office a bit early due to taking the previous day off, to finish his paperwork for Kunikida. He stops to catch his breath when his mentor stops in front of him, his posture stiff, with his hands in his pockets.

"Atsushi let's go talk in the meeting room in private." Dazai says in a serious manner, though for the tiger it was hard for him to read his mentor's emotions, much less know what the other was up to or thinking. He straightens up to look the other in the eye, a curious glint in his eye.

"What is it?" Atsushi asks curiously.

Dazai points his shoulder to the door leading to the meeting room, giving the boy the unspoken message to follow him and ask questions later. It only takes a few strides to come to the door, walking through it, Dazai closing the door behind him silently, and proceeds to pull out a folder from his long trench coat. He motions for Atsushi to sit down as he does the same, before he starts to speak in a monotone like voice.

"Ango got ahold of me last night saying that the police want to speak with the two of us as well as Akutagawa and Chuuya. He got ahold of his informative, and got ahold of some new information the station got yesterday." Dazai finishes off, pulling out a few sheets of paper.

Atsushi pales a bit at the information, biting his lip lightly he asks "But why do they want to speak with us? You know that none of us can afford for the police to dig too deep on any one of us."

Dazai nods "That's right. You still have a bounty on your head, and as for me, Akutagawa, and Chuuya, with our pasts and occupations in life, we can't afford for them to do much digging. I've already forwarded the information I'm about to relay to you, to the two of them. They couldn't come out today because of work being heavy." He slides a photo towards the tiger, waiting for the others reaction to such a horrific image.

For a few moments Atsushi is silent but then looks back up from the photo back towards his mentor, his eyes blown open. "Is that Tobias?"

"Yes it is. Apparently after we left the apartment there was an attack on his life. The attackers hacked his tongue off, nearly broke his jaw, collapsed his esophagus, cut the circulation off his wrists and ankles with electrical wire, and banged him around some more." The older man leaves the photo there, and pulls out another sheet of stark white paper. "You want to know what the strange thing was?"

"What?" The tiger asks curiously, wanting to know more.

"Approximately ten minutes after we left there was a call to emergency services, and the call was located in his apartment. It was from a russian girl by the accent over the phone, she stated that he was her longtime friend and she came by his apartment to check on him. Though the thing is nobody reported when questioned, seeing anyone besides the four of us entering his apartment the whole day previous." He looks at Atsushi with an eyebrow raised "Do you get what I'm hinting too?"

The tiger boy thinks about all the possibilities, leaning back in his chair. Nobody but the four of them had entered that apartment the whole day yesterday, and a call from someone in that very same apartment made a call not long after they had left. That could only be one possibility, as he gives his answer. "That means that whoever made the call, was already in the apartment, even when we were talking to him. That could only point to whoever made that call, being his attacker."

"Attackers, and you're right on the money. By the amount of injuries he suffered from, that could only mean that there was more than one attacker. There were things knocked to the floor, so that points to a struggle, and one attacker couldn't have managed all of that." Dazai replies, putting down the sheet for a minute.

"What happened to this russian girl?"

"I couldn't get ahold of a recording of the phone call, but by the way the report was written, the 119 operator reported that the girl on the other line sounded distressed, and panicked. They were barely on the line for a minute before there was a strange unexplained sound on the other line, the girl telling her that the attacker was still in the apartment, then the call cut off suddenly. Of course being told that an attacker was still in residence the police and emergency services didn't take very long getting to said location. When the police busted down the door, guns armed and ready, they searched the apartment from top to bottom, but didn't find any kind of intruder or attacker. Even stranger, the only one in the apartment was an unconscious Tobias lying on his bed bleeding from his cut off tongue. They did find the phone that was used to call for their services, but that was broken to pieces not far from the bed, like it was stomped on repeatedly." Dazai reads off giving a summary of the events.

"What kind of phone was used?"

"A burner phone. One that is easily destroyed, untraceable, but hard to find out anything on it because criminals tend to not put important information or any personal information on the thing." He looks further down the page "I said attackers because Tobias had carpet in his bedroom, and they found three different shoe prints in the carpet. Two shoe prints that look like that of a girl, and one that looked like that of a man."

"So was that all a set up?" Atsushi asks in realization.

"Don't know yet, but with the way the facts are piling up it seems like it. I suspect that she had some kind of listening device hidden in his apartment, and was listening to our entire conversation with that man. So she waited in that apartment, I have no idea how she got into said apartment so quickly, but she was hidden from our view. In other words Tobias was attacked because he talked to us." Dazai says crossing his fingers together.

"Why cut off his tongue though?" Atsushi squeaks out in slight horror.

"In the past whenever someone betrayed someone and or knew too much. They would cut off the tongues of said people and burn the end of it. Most people would end up in slavery, or on the run from hunters. Tobias has been running, and he was finally caught. Though he did have a lead on him, they just let that lead be loose enough to let him know they could always pull it back on him."

Dazai pulls out another set of sheets altogether, clearing his throat "Another thing that was brought up by a witness that was brought in for questioning, she told a detective about a long time case of a gang made up entirely of kids." He slides a sheet of paper across the table, for the tiger to see the file.

Atsushi picks up the sheet reading along with Dazai's description of the gang. "So are these two cases related somehow?"

Dazai nods "Yes they are." He crosses his fingers under his chin, looking down at the same sheet as Atsushi was reading through at the same time. "This gang goes by the name of Nacht Dämonen or Night Demons. Now you'll notice that the gang doesn't go by a japanese name either, that's been a puzzling factor for years with the police, considering that the gang's location is located in Amamatsu. Though yesterday after a woman that goes by the name of Juki gave a story about seeing the symbol of the gang in an interview."

"What symbol would that be? How do these two things relate towards each other?"

He slides the same photo that was shown to Juki the day before. "That's the gang symbol for this gang, For years nobody knew what the leader's symbol looked like, nor who the leader actually was." Dazai says holding his finger up. "Yesterday this Juki woman gave a very interesting statement about one of these symbols. She stated that she was on a train heading to work years ago, and saw these two kids sitting on the train as well. One was a boy that had pale skin, red eyes, and wore a lot of black. He told her that Yokohama would be a good opportunity to start a new life. The other one was a girl, she had a german accent, and eyes that looked cold and calculating when the girl flicked a gaze over at her. She wore black gloves as well, even after accidently spilling some drink on them, she didn;t take them off to clean her hands. A few hours ago she went back to the police station and gave a very descriptive account of what the kids looked like to the sketch artist. The boy had that same symbol on a necklace around his neck, and the girl's symbol was different."

"What was different about it?" Atsushi asked the taller man, eyes shining with curiosity.

"The colors on it. Her symbol was red and white." Dazai pulls out two sketches from the folder, that he may have gotten behind the police's backs, but he wasn't going to tell them that small piece of information. "Do one of these two look familiar to you?" He asks with a smirk.

Atsushi's eyes go wide as he is quick to flick his gaze back up to the other. "That's Beatrix!"

"Exactly. The features are the same. As for the other one, the identity is still unknown. So we can confirm that Beatrix is the leader for the Night Demons. She has many people under her disposal, that's most likely why she can move around so easily." Dazai says smartly. He held up a finger then pulled out another photo of a young boy, the boy was a missing child. "This brings us to the next topic. A missing child's case!"

"Uh not to be rude, but what does this have to do with our case?" Atsushi asked a bit nervously.

"Good question my little protege!" Dazai points to the poster. "This child has been missing for some time now, and the parents are at the end of their ropes in worry. So they've handed the agency this case, in hopes that their little boy would be found, whether dead or alive. The police haven't produced much results, and he's been missing for a month already. Now the two of us aren't going to be taking this case, someone else from the agency will be doing so. Though we can help just in case."

"Why is that?" Atsushi asks the other, his head tilting to the side in both curiosity and confusion. Curious as to why they would be helping with the case, but confused at the same time because they were working on their own case right now.

"I have a hunch about this missing child's case, and I want to see if the puzzle pieces I have in place will come into fruition." Dazai replies with a small smirk, and Atsushi has seen that look on the older man's face enough times. He couldn't even count those times on his 10 fingers, to be well informed of whatever Dazai was planning wasn't going to be a smooth mission where one can slip in and out with ease. "Now do you want to know of some of the eyewitness statements that some people gave, among other details involving this child's disappearance?"

Atsushi nods his head, his curiosity winning over his confusion. His soft heart wanting to help find this poor child as soon as possible so the family can have some kind of closure no matter if the child was found dead, or alive in the end. "Yeah, start out with the basics first if you would Dazai-san."

Dazai looks down at a stack of papers, picking the first one off the neatly stacked pile that was held in another folder. "Last month on the 3rd, the boy got up that morning to get dressed for school. His mother gave him his lunchbox, and kissed him on the cheek before sending him off to the bus station, which wasn't even a few houses down from their own house. It could be seen from one of the windows of the home, though while the boy was heading to the bus stop, his mother said that she went into the laundry room to pick up a new outfit that she had ordered the day previous, and to get ready to run a few errands for the day. Her husband had left half an hour earlier heading into work to the office, so she got dressed up, and headed into the deeper parts of the city. About 5 hours later she came back home, put away the groceries that she had bought while out, and started to cook dinner. When the clock hit the time for her son to be dropped off at the bus station, she made sure dinner was covered, and went out to meet him with a bag of cookies the boy had always loved. The bus eventually stopped, but her son didn't get off the bus with the few other kids dropped off. She questioned the bus driver asking him where her son was, and he told her that her son didn't get on the bus that afternoon. After coming back from the bus station she called the school up asking where her son was, asking if he was still at the school. That's where she got the horribly shocking news that her son didn't even show up to school that day. They assumed that he was sick at home, but was planning on calling her later for confirmation. That's when she filed a missing persons report with the police department, though as the more time passed with little to no leads, the case started to grow cold."

"That's horrible, I can't imagine the pain and loss that family is going through, even to this very second." Atsushi murmurs lowly, his fists tightening up slightly against the papers held in his hands. "Were there any eyewitnesses?"

"Yeah a couple of people, though their identities have been kept anonymous." He flips the paper over continuing to read. "A woman around her mid twenties was in the middle of her morning run, and reported seeing a young woman approaching this kid at the bus station. The kid panicked at first, and she was going to intervene, but halted when the kid started to laugh at something the woman had told him. The woman didn't look like she was the kids mother, but she also assumed that the kid could have been adopted as well, and went on her way. She heard about him disappearing later into the day, and told the police that if she had another chance to play that scene all over again, she would have intervened, and tried to figure out the situation." Dazai pauses before reading once more "An elderly man sitting on the bench by the bus station reported the same thing as the previous woman. He said that the kid was humming a tune under his breath while munching on a small puff pastry, when this same woman approached the boy. He said that the boy acted genuinely scared, and tried to get away from the woman, he could hear the boy asking who the woman was. She told him that she was a friend of his mother, and that his mother asked her to take him to school that day, that his mother had a treat for him. The boy did calm down, he agreed to go with her telling her about the last treat his mother gave him. She took his hand in hers, and walked to a vehicle that was silver, and small. The boy got in the backseat, while the woman got in the driver's seat, and she drove away."

"So the boy was kidnapped?" The tiger boy asks not really knowing what to say in response.

"That's what you would think isn't it?" Dazai questions as he pulls out another picture, showing it to the other. In the picture it showed a badly burnt vehicle, some parts still intact, except the inside of the vehicle. "This was the vehicle that the old man identified, it was found deep in the woods the next day burnt so terribly that the police weren't able to find any clues inside or outside of said vehicle. To make matters worse the police tracked down the owners of the vehicle, only to find out they were killed in their sleep, both laying in bed with a bullet each lodged in their brains. They then tried to identify the bullets dug out of the couples skulls. Though that ended up being a dead lead, for the gun that killed them was one that they owned. They didn't find any fingerprints on the gun either, and the house was spotless, except for the missing car keys."

"So whoever took him knew about what the police would be looking for, and how to get away with it long enough to slip out of their grasp? They did all of that so nothing would lead back to themselves? It would all be just a puzzle that was scrambled up. Were the people targeted or at the wrong place at the wrong time?" Atsushi asks the other, leaning forward a bit in anticipation.

"Most likely at the wrong place at the wrong time. The house wasn't ransacked, nothing was broken, and everything was in perfect order. They just took the car so they wouldn't be tracked, and killed the people so they wouldn't alert the police too early. Then when they had the child, they did god knows what with him. They burnt the car after soaking it thoroughly with lighter fluid in the middle of nowhere as to not draw any attention to themselves, and so they could slip away into the cover of the darkness back to wherever they came from." Dazai details out.

"Is there a chance he could still be alive? Could they be holding him for ransom because his parents are rich?" Atsushi asks, holding a little bit of hope the kid was still alive, and that he hadn't suffered under that persons, or peoples hands.

Dazai flicks an unknown look over to the tiger before clearing his throat. "I don't think they took him for a ransom, otherwise they would have made a phone call, a move or something by now towards the parents or the police. It's been a month, no kidnapper is going to wait this long for a ransom deal before playing their hand. Since that day, and finding the dead couples home, nothing has shown up. No phone calls, no mail, absolutely nothing. They took him for another completely different reason, the same unknown reason for which I believe he was killed not long after snatching him, or holding him somewhere to never come home. Most likely they took him underground, and sold him. Or killed him if he fought back against them, after all he's not the first kid to disappear like he did."

"You mean recently?"

"Yeah that is what I exactly mean. There is an underground black market for just about anything and everything. That includes snatching children and selling them in the underground market to a gang, or to some old rich bastard to use as a slave. They don't just snatch any child off the street, that would be too risky, instead they watch and observe from the shadows just waiting for the right moment to strike. Someone preferably that woman was the one to do that job, and she chose to risk snatching the child where there were a few people in the area. They chose her because a man would have pushed those boundaries a bit too far. Resulting in a failed mission to get the child, usually they send a woman that doesn't look like she would hurt a fly." He looks up from the papers, folding his arms in front of him on the table's surface. "It's been a month, with as much time that has passed, there is only a very small percentage that he's ever going to be found. If he is found, most likely they'll slit his throat, or kill him execution style before disposing of the body, and fleeing from the area."

"Did any of the two eyewitnesses give a description to the police as to what the woman looked like? Maybe we could track her, or have our informative look into it." Atsushi asks once more, his interest in this case drawing him more and more into it.

The older man pulls out a sketch handing it to the younger boy. "That's the woman, both the woman and the elderly man gave the same descriptions of that woman. Now the police have tried looking up anyone in the record books that looks like that but nothing came up. They posted the pic out to the public a few days after the boy disappeared, but there hasn't been any calls, or leads towards this individual. It's like this person had never existed, it's like she just simply disappeared from the world itself." He holds up a finger "Though as I was searching through a book last night after receiving this information, I came across a woman in a book I was reading and she looked exactly like this eyewitness picture of this woman. Now this woman from the book is a serial killer that goes around abducting children while giving the people around her the perfect image of being a mother. She gave off the feeling to the people that she wouldn't even hurt a fly, when in reality she was a horribly evil person with hidden secrets. That took great pleasure in what she did to the kids she came across, mostly selling them to the black market in the underground. The woman in the picture fits the description of the woman in that book to a T. That tells me that this is the work of an ability user, an ability user that has the ability to change her image at will. That's why the police or any database in the world wasn't able to find her, because the image she took was the woman found in the book, a fictional character that doesn't exist. Once again we'll have to ask Ango for help on finding an ability user with an ability to change their appearance at will."

"That's pretty smart if you ask me. Changing one's appearance to a fictional character, so nobody would know your true appearance. That way you can slip away really easy from the law." Atsushi says his hand on his chin. He flicks his gaze up to Dazai "I've never heard of an ability user that is capable of doing such a thing, that's frightening if you think about it."

"Yep, you could have walked past them a million times by now, and still be clueless. That is one very useful ability if I do say so myself. Though we have no clue who this user's true identity or gender is for that matter." Dazai informs him pushing up from the desk. He puts everything back in the folder, stuffing the fat yellow envelope under his arm. "I would be careful walking around, try sticking to the back streets, and alleyways until we can clear everything up with the police." His mentor tells him with a serious face, walking out of the room.

Atsushi follows out of the room, back into the office. He sits down at his desk, filing through his paperwork when he sees a small pink letter stuffed in one of the books. Raising an eyebrow he pulls it out examining it. 'This looks like a love letter, but who would put a love letter on my desk like this?' The tiger thinks as he silently pulls the pink colored envelope open, and pulls out a small slip of paper. His eyes widen when he sees a picture of him asleep in his bed, curled up in the covers. On the clock by his bed he sees it's late at night, and above that a calendar where he marks the days off, is hung on the wall. A cold chill runs through his backbone when he discovers that the photo was taken that night that girl whispered in his ear.

He covers his mouth in horror, Dazai turns in his desk chair, and sees his protege frozen looking at a picture in his hands shakily.

When his eyes land on the photo he asks lowly "What the hell?"


End file.
